


The Enemy Within 2 (AC)

by DeepSeaChallenger



Category: Assassin's Creed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-14
Updated: 2015-12-30
Packaged: 2018-04-14 14:59:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 44,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4568853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeepSeaChallenger/pseuds/DeepSeaChallenger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to the first. More desperate than before, and determined to hunt down the Artefacts of Eden, Abstergo waits only a few weeks before bringing more people from the past to the future. Alone and with no clue how to navigate this strange, bright, sometimes terrifying new world, they have to turn to each other- even the enemy faction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> More people will be added, no doubt about that. Also, the new title, very original if I do say so myself ;)

"So how are they doing so far?" The new supervisor asked.  
The tech shrugged. "Mild confusion. Or, in Hickey's case, complete and utter panic."  
A wave of snickers throughout the whole department.  
"Hey, back to work." The supervisor snapped.  
"I swear the best behaved is Liam and that's onoy because he's still knocked out." The tech murmured. She turned to him. "Big guy."  
"No shit." He said, scanning the rooms. "Well, make sure they're safe. The brass doesn't want any info leaking out. Not so soon after that last one."  
"Did they ever find out who did it?"  
"Not really."

***  
Adewalé didn't know when and he didn't know how... but he was absolutely, one hundred percent, certain this involved those Templars Edward used to frolic with.  
At first he sat up and studied the room, painfully aware of how unarmed he was. Ah, well. Ah Tabai had traind him to use his fists better. He even learned a few new ways to kill someone.  
With a spoon.  
He smiled to himself and leaned against the wall, his arms folded. Everything was clean and shone brilliantly, making him positive this wasn't anywhere near Nassau and it's - humbling- filth.  
There was even a little sun flickering above him. It was bright and he couldn't look directly at it, so he was sure it was a sun. At least, he hoped it was.  
Now all he had to do was wait and see- and hope that whoever had done this was an Assassin.  
For their sake, of course.

***  
Shao Jun propped herself up on her elbow and looked around. The entire place was pristine and everything was bright white, even the sheets. Which was concerning.... everything was too clean.  
Someone had to have done this. She couldn't have just fallen asleep and- bam- just wind up here.  
She crossed her arms and tried to keep her gaze off the little sun above her; people went blind from staring at such things. Still.... one peek here and there wouldn't hurt.  
Surely.  
"Is there anyone out there?" She shouted.  
No one replied.  
"Coward!"  
Still no response.

***  
Maria Thorpe was a tomboy, yes. But she also liked to be in control of a situation. A Templar trait, Robert always said.  
She blinked.  
The last thing she remembered was going to sleep next to that Assassin... Altaïr. On the ship. He seemed rather fond of writing in his journal and when they spoke something stirred in her. But he was an Assassin and she was Templar and it was not to be.  
She couldn't be thinking such thoughts. Now she had to escape.  
Maybe this was some kind of test. Or maybe... and she shuddered to think this.... the work of the Assassins.  
Maria lay back against the bed. The little sun above her gave everything a good kind of glow, but it wasn't even natural.  
No. Only the Templars had this kind of technology. With their Pieces of Eden.

***  
Liam swung his feet down over the side of the bed.  
He gazed around the room, his head spinning with all sorts of protocols and techniques.  
Hmm...  
He squinted at the walls- those weird walls- and wracked his brains. The last thing he remembered....  
Trying to sleep after Shay died.  
He felt his stomach grow cold as he thought of his friend- the traitor. He remembered dragging Hope from the edge and hugging her tightly, murming gentle reminders of what he ahad done.  
He almost laughed. Hope had threatened to pitch him over the cliff after Shay if he didn't shut up.  
Liam shook himself and looked at his sides. Great. No weapons. Alone in a room probably built by fucking Templars....  
No.  
He set his jaw.  
He was an Assassin. He'd escape on his own.

***  
Hope sighed.  
The room was whitewalled and very clean, even the sheets she was resting on. Weird. Hadn't she knocked herself out drinking the same night Shay had... gone and died?  
She shuddered and refocused her attention on the room.  
The thing that most held her interest was the little light above. Well, not light.  
A sun?  
Maybe.

***  
Hickey yowled.  
"Let me the fuck out of here!" He pounded the little grayish door he had discovered.  
"Enough, Thomas."  
"Oh, yeah? Make me!" He snarled at nothing in particular.  
He hated this room, he hated thie door, he hated that person.  
Overall, Haytham would cuff his ear and demand he get a hold of himself. But this time Haytham wasn't here and that was the problem.  
Hickey kicked the door. He drew in a breath and kicked again.  
"Stop." The voice said again.  
"Fuck. You." He said simply.  
He continued to punch and kick and curse.

***  
What was that? What made that thing work?  
Leonardo's mind raced.  
He scurried onto the white bed and stood up, peering at the little sun with wide eyes. No, no, no, this was no sun, this was definately some sort of weird candle thing in the wall-  
Hang on.  
He looked down, blinked, then looked again with little circles in his eyelids.  
"Enough of that, Da Vinci, you're going to blind yourself." A voice echoed through the room.  
Leonardo nearly faceplanted on the floor from the bed.  
"Who said that? What year is this? How did you-"  
"Just.... shut up. Don't go crazy, bro. This is just for a little while, and then it's back to the 1400's."  
Leonardo snapped his fingers. He had no idea what bro meant. "Hmm... I most certainly am not crazy. And this isn't the 1400's! I was right! Now, maybe this is a problem, since I have Ezio coming over tomorrow- Ah, hell, maybe I'll bring back some sketches!"  
"Yeah.... right."  
"Who said that?!"

***  
Malik swore and sat up against the bed. Miniature suns, bright white rooms, funny looking beds, no weapons.  
But at least Altaïr wasn't here.  
Malik scoffed to himself. Arrogant bastard...  
Well....  
Maybe he was being too harsh.  
But then again, the man was an ass and- waitwaitwait.  
He froze, tilted his head back, and gawked at the little glowing orb above him.  
Was that a sun?!

***  
Henry Green groaned and pushed himself off the bed, crossing his arms.  
He paced the room, tapping his fingers against his elbows.  
The room was so white and clean and so... weird. Yes.  
He frowned. That was the word Jacob and Evie loved. Weird.  
Hmm. That was what he remembered. Being taken to the Archives by Evie. Something about Haytham Kenway and Shay Cormac. They had stayed at an inn for the night after finding Jacob holding a liquor bottle and claiming he couldn't get drunk.  
Evie had taken the bottle and flung it into the river, then grabbed his ear and dragged him to the inn.  
Henry scowled. Aside from the miniature sun and far-too- tryhard cleanliness, this room was, well... nice.  
Yeah, right.

***  
Élise growled and backed away from the door. "Bring me Arno!"  
"I apologize, ma'am, but no." That voice said.  
She kicked the door. "No! Bring me Arno!"  
"No."  
"Fuck you! Coward!"  
There was silence in response.  
She whirled around and kicked the wall the weird voice seemed to be coming from.  
"Knock it off." The voice snapped. "You're fine. He's fine."  
Not really. Her last memory was falling asleep next to him in the balloon. He had been right next to her.  
She swore in French and raised her fists. "You're in for hell."

***  
"Oh, for fuck's sake, what does Hickey think he's going to accomplish?" The supervisor muttered.  
The tech turned to him. "They're terrified, Nick, cut 'em some slack."  
"They'll be fine." He rolled his eyes. "Tell him to knock it off again."  
She shrugged and leaned forward in the chair, holding the button for Hickey's com link. "Knock it the fuck off."  
Hickey grew more defiant. "No!"  
"Oh, God." The supervisor groaned. "Élise was right; we are in for hell."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone Who Took the Time to Post!; Thank you for commenting! There will be more for sure! :D  
> Acsister; Now I wanna add Shay so he can see them :)

The supervisor was not averse to emloying questionable methods to get people to shut up.  
In other words, he was fully prepared to gas Hickey to get the Templar to stop his screaming.  
From what he'd heard, the supervispr from the last, ahem, job, (Some pudgy guy named Kyle) had been too easygoing and everyone escaped.  
Resulting in the feds realizing something was up and conducting a full sweep of Abstergo and its databases. So this next operation was under more than lock and key. It was under lock, key, and several layers of lawyers. And guards.  
And death threats from Vidic if Nick failed to glean anything.  
He crossed his arms and watched the Assassins and Templars in the seperate room. The room were lined up side by side- the room was pretty large- with little spaces in between each one for walkways. There was the break room in the back for interrogations, and a door leading to an exit on the outdoors.  
"You know what, we may end up just interrogating them now to avoid Leonardo's incessant staring at that fucking lightbulb." Melanie LeMay- she had actually been demoted on account of the recent incidents- came up beside him.  
"Yeah. Let's get them into the interrogation rooms and give them food in there." He said. "Bread and water, right?"  
"Yep." She scanned her communicator and nodded to the guard team beside the door. They were armed with tranquilizers. "Let's go. Wouldn't want to keep them waiting."

***  
Alright.  
Adewalé was pissed.  
After several hours of silence, someone had suddenly oushed in, closing the door behind him. He wore dark clothes and held a...  
What the hell was that? It was made of smooth black metal and was apparently heavy. Must have been some sort of musket, he reason.  
The man held it up to his eye and nodded to Adewalé.  
"Don't panic." He said in a loud voice. "This will make you fall asleep."  
Adewalé was not convinced. "We have blowpipes for that, man. And I am not falling asleep anytime soon."  
The man laughed. "Think of this as a blowpipe, then."  
He pulled the trigger and something bright shot out of the... blowpipe... and Adewalé looked down at his arm as something pricked it.  
"Goodnight." The man said, starting forward. Adewalé felt his eyes close and tried to stay awake.  
"What-"  
Then he fell asleep.

***  
Leonardo was most certainly not done with that tiny little sun, but he'd have to return to it once this joker got what he wanted and left.  
"How does it work? Does it spit fire? Shoot arrows?" He questioned, sidling up toward the man and grabbing the tip of the black thing he held.  
The man dressed in dark clothes laughed and shoved him away. "It's a fucking gun, you moron."  
"Oh! Like those codex pages Ezio showed me! Of course!"  
"Wanna see how it works?"  
Leonardo's eyes widened. "You would show me?"  
"Of course." The man smiled cruelly and shot Leonardo in the foot.  
As his eyes closed, Leonardo wondered just what kind of weapon this 'gun' really was. A bow? A crossbow? Both?

***  
Maria stared at the man who had appeared in the doorway, holding a big black thing made of metal.  
"What the hell? Who are you? How did I get here? Where am I?"  
He grinned and drummed his fingers on the metal thing. "Well, my name is Dylon and you're about to be shot."  
"I'm about to be what-"  
Dylon swung the metal thing so it was pointing toward her shoulder and looked through the sight. "Say cheese."  
"Uh.... cheese?"  
Something pricked her arm, and she thought of Altaïr just before she hit the floor.

***  
Malik stared in pure awe at the woman in dark clothes who stood before him.  
She held a darkly colored metal thing and was pointing it right at him.  
At first he blinked and tilted his head. "What's that?"  
"Oh, this? My favorite. A tranqulizer." She said curtly. "I'll show you how it works."  
"Oh? Do tell, it looks interesting." He replied with genuine curiousity.  
She smirked and her fingers twitched.  
Something stang in his hand and he looked down at a little dart that stuck from his skin.  
He swore and fell asleep.

***  
Henry Green was being aimed at.  
Aimed at with some kind of weapon.  
By a possible Templar.  
He stood and raised his fists. "Come and fight me like a man!"  
The man in front of him rolled his eyes, but didn't move the (He guessed it was a rifle.) gun from its position, the muzzle pointed at Henry.  
"Really, man, you'd think you'd be more relaxed. Just calm down."  
"Calm down?! I'm alone and pissed and probably surrounded by the enemy and Jacob and Evie are gone!" He snarled.  
The man shrugged casually. "Whatever."  
A small spark of pain bloomed in his chest and he looked down, at a small brightly colored dart.  
"What did you...." His knees folded and he slumped to the ground, his eyes closing.  
"Goodnight." The man walked forward and stood in from of him, his arms crossed.  
"Goodnight." Henry echoed, feeling like a child.  
Then he was asleep.

***  
Élise glared at the man in front of her. He looked a little like Arno if she titled her head the right way.  
But Arno was not fond of funny looking black... she guessed it was gun, of sorts.  
"Tired?" He asked.  
"Are you a Templar?" Way to be outright, Élise, she chided herself.  
He shrugged. "I work for 'em."  
"What's that you're holding?"  
"A rifle. It'll put you to sleep."  
"I'm not tired."  
"I apologize for this."  
Before she could react, he lifted the rifle and fired, sending a small, brightly colored dart into her arm.  
Almost immediately Élise felt her eyes drift shut and forced herself to stay alert. It wasn't working.  
"Traitor." She hissed, sinking to the floor.  
"I'm just after some cash. Can't blame me."  
Her last thought before falling asleep entirely was 'Now what the hell is this 'cash'?'

***  
Hickey was terrified without the Grandmaster. He provided a calm presence with enough skill to make anyone feel safe.  
But the sight of women was better than the sight of his fellow Templar leading the way through battle with a pistol and Hidden Blade.  
She had suddenly shoved open the door- with him pressed against it- and then closed it again, to stand stock still with a big black- he was going to call it a musket- pointed at his head.  
But boy, was she pretty.  
"Hickey." She said through clenched teeth.  
"Yes, ma'am."  
"Cut the bullshit. Stand up."  
He did as he was told.  
"You ever been hit with a sleep dart before?" She asked.  
He shrugged. "Well, there was this one time Charles Lee 'accidently' shot me with a sleep dart when Haytham was teaching us how to use them. But we were three feet from each other so I know he did it on purpose-"  
Her hand twitched, and he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. Looking down, something stuck out of his arm. "Ouch."  
The last thing he did before his eyes drifted shut and he fell asleep was think of how he could really use one of these muskets.

***  
Hope stood face to face with a man two times bigger than her, her fists raised.  
"Look, it's painless, see?" He said. Immediately she recoiled. He spoke with an Irish accent.  
"What is that thing?" Hope growled, pointing at the black musket-thing he held.  
He shrugged. "A tranquilizer."  
Hope rolled her eyes. "Be more fucking specific."  
"Okay, okay!" He sounded exasperated. "I'm being specific, see?"  
He lifted the musket, aimed at her neck, and fired.  
It would have hit her if she didn't jump out of the way.  
The man cursed and reloaded, then turned and fired again.  
This time the dart hit home.  
She sank to the ground, holding her arm and fighting the sudden blackness looming in her mind.  
"Hell, I'm sorry." Through the fog of sleep, she swore Shay was speaking to her. "Must have misfired."

***  
Liam did everything.  
He kicked and punched and dodged and pretty much panicked.  
The man in front of him (His nametag read 'Mike') was growing exasperated. "Come on!" He shouted, shooting his fifth dart.  
Liam jumped onto the bed and thumbed his nose at the guy. "Come and get me, you bastard."  
Then he ducked to avoid another dart and jumped forward, tackling Mike and sending the musket-thing to skittering to the side.  
Liam looked at Mike.  
Mike looked at Liam.  
Then they both made a move to the side, their hands grasping for the weapon. The Assassin was just sheer miliseconds faster.  
Liam laughed in triumph and danced away, clutching the musket-thing in his hand. "How do you like that?"  
He lowered it and studied the weapon, placing his hands where the trigger on a regular musket would be. He turned the barrel to himself and peered in, then was about to drop it when his fingers slipped and something bright shot out of the barrel, almost silent.  
It pricked his neck and he felt darkness tug his mind almost instantly.  
"Idiot. Did anyone ever tell you not to look down the barrel of a blowpipe?" The man snickered, pushing himself to his feet even as Liam crumpled to the ground.

***  
"Well, that was interesting." The supervisor said.  
Melanie LeMay nodded. "Took about three minutes, believe it or not. Seven minutes less than the others did."  
"So how did that project go?" He dared asked, as the guards began carrying the Assassins and Templars to the interrogation room.  
"You don't wanna know. It took us forever to get those guys back here." LeMay rolled her eyes.  
"Huh." He laughed. "Won't happen this time!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's the reason for no tough fight from the others; I wanted to capture more curiosity on their part. Also, without giving too much away, they need to reserve their strenght.  
> Acsister; Henry Green, from what we've seen so far of Syndicate is an Indian Assassin who acts sort of like... the voice of reason Jacob and Evie probably lack. :)

The supervisor sighed. More complications.  
"Why can't we just interrigate them now?" He growled.  
Beside him, Melanie shrugged. "Sorry, Nick, but this is the issue. Vidic and friends want a certain time. They said that the arrival of Haytham last time sort of disrupted things and resulted in chaos due to him and his son's- let's call it a grudge, yes?"  
Nick sighed and watched them carry the last, Hope, into the break room. "What time is it now?"  
"Two in the morning. Interrogations start at two thirty."  
"But the tranquilizers only stay in their systems-"  
"-For ten minutes, I know. But don't worry, only Hope and Liam know each other."  
"And that's supposed to make me feel better?" The supervisor said slowly. Melanie's gaze turned serious.  
"They both fell to Shay in the end, Nick.... and, you might be pleased to know, Vidic and Olivier are debating bringing Shay back into this. They're looking at Altaïr, Arno, and Haytham, too, but nothing's certain."  
The supervisor watched the guards close the newly repaired glass door and took a deep breath. "Fine."

***  
Adewalé was the first to wake up.  
He slowly titled his head, studying the room. For now he would ignore the people around him; they were all asleep.  
He was on a brightly colored bag of sand- And it was red, his favorite color- and in a room with carefully cleaned walls. The floor was a bluish gray carpet that made a weird noise when he scraped his boots against it, and against the wall a few feet away, there was a counter made of some dark rock. Some abnormally smooth rock. Another bright sun shone above his head, but he decided to let that go. Maybe this was some sort of dream?  
He stood and looked around, at the differently clothes people around him.  
A woman in purple with dark hair. Beside her, his chin against his chest, was a man with bright hair cut close to his head. Hm. Definately Irish. Next to him was a young man in casual clothes- very casual- with a tricorn hat. He reminded him vaguely of Edward.  
Farther down the little circle of sandbags, an Indian man slept with his head to the side, his robes a mix of white and gold and green. Robes.... Adewalé turned snd studied the rest of them. A woman in red. He guessed she was Chinese- he had seen a few privateers of her style (although this seemed a little older) in Nassau. Next to her, a man in clothes less flamboyant, but still red. For some reason he couldn't place who he was. But someone important, he knew that instantly. Then there was a young woman with more boyish clothes than Adewalé had come to expect of woman her age. She had red hair, a small smile played on her lips, almost as though it was permanent. Beside her there was a man who was lacking an arm- ow- and his skin was tinted in such a way he guessed he was Arabic. Another woman was beside him, with dark hair, too. English, maybe? He clothes were old.  
Well.  
There was nothing to do but wait for them to wake up.

***  
"Grandmaster!" Hickey woke up from the terrible dream shouting. Haytham always appeared in his doorway, no matter what hour of the night it was, to tell him to be quiet or he'd come in there and tear him a new one. And that usually made things better.  
But this time....  
Before filling his lungs again, Hickey looked around.  
Odd people, odd clothes, odd room.  
He met eyes with the only man who wasn't asleep, who sat with his arms crossed over his chest. He eyed Hickey with his head tilted to one side, smirking at him. "Missing someone?"  
"Who are you?" Hickey demanded. "Do you know what happened?"  
The man shrugged. "Adewalé. And you're asking me? I can't help you, breddah. I know no more than the next man."  
Hickey narrowed his eyes at him. "Alright... Adewalé." The name rang a bell. A big bell that knocked around in Hickey's head. Adewalé-  
Assassin.  
Oh.  
Fuck.  
"Haaaaayyytthaaam!"

***  
She was going to rip his head off.  
Shay used to wake up like this sometimes. But his was more funny. He always cried things like 'Incoming!' or 'I'll pay you later!'. But this poor bloke...  
Hope stood (Was that Liam over there? She was too annoyed to really care just yet.), ignored the questioning look of the man next to her, and smacked the screamer in the face.  
"Get a hold of yourself? What's wrong with you?"  
The man stared at her. "Who are you?"  
"Hope Jenson, you?"  
"Thomas Hickey!" He quipped.  
Hope frowned. Has she heard right? Hickey? Templar. Yes, he was a Templar. No wonder he was screaming for the Grandmaster. But why?  
"And my name is Adewalé."  
Hope didn't even bother to cover that her mouth had dropped open. Adewalé?  
"But you don't...." She turned and studied him. Holy shit, he was Adewalé. Albeit a younger version. "Have you been to the colonies?"  
"No place for a pirate." He smiled.  
Wait.  
A pirate? She had a lot of questioning to do.

***  
Shao Jun woke up to quiet conversation.  
"What do we do with the Templar?" A female's voice.  
"I can hear you, you know!" Someone snapped. Male. He had a weird accent.  
She stood and stretched, studying the room. "Who are all of you?"  
"Oh, great," The man with the weird accent rolled his eyes. "Another Assassin. Good thing she's h-"  
The woman in purple slapped a hand over his mouth. "Hope Jenson. This is Adewalé, and the Templar over here is Thomas Hickey."  
"Templar?" Shao asked.  
Hickey scowled, and Hope shrugged. "We're working on the details."  
"My name is Shao Jun." She said evenly. "You're all Assassins, yes?"  
"Shao Jun?" Hope sounded like she choked. "I need to wake someone up."

***  
"Hope?" He murmuered. He wasn't ready to wake up yet. Not ready to face the reality that his best friend was gone and it was his fault and wait a minute why was he even thinking about this?  
"Wake up." Hope whispered. "Shao Jun, remember her from the studies?"  
"Yes.... why?"  
"I'm getting to that. You know how Adewalé is working with us to find Shay?"  
"Yes... again, why?"  
"Well..." She stepped aside.  
Liam's breath caught. Shao Jun stood next to a young Adewalé, and they both looked... like real people. Not out of paintings. But he had other matters to attend to. "You're here, too?"  
"Yes." Hope said in a quiet voice. "They must have taken us from different time zones. Is Shay... gone?"  
He nodded.  
Hope frowned. "I thought as much."

***  
Malik blinked and sat up. He felt fine- must not have been a poison dart- but...  
Who were these people and were they allies?  
He cleared his throat to get their attention.  
Everyone actually shut up right away.  
"What are your names?"  
He willed himself not to look, but he was certain that Templar Altaïr had spoken of (Apparently he had a slight crush. Emphasis on 'slight'.), Maria, was right next to him.  
"Adewalé, Hope Jenson, Shao Jun, Liam O'Brien, and Thomas Hickey."  
"You are Irish!" Adewalé snapped his fingers.  
Liam looked suprised. "You were wondering? I thought-"  
"Liam." Hope said sharply. "Time zones."  
The Irishman looked apologetic.  
"I am Malik Al-Sayf." He declared, standing up.  
"I'm going to have a bloody heart attack." Liam said simply.  
"Don't do it without me." Hope added.  
Malik lifted an eyebrow. What? Why? Was it something he said? Or did?

***  
Élise had been quietly listening to the people talking around her. She didn't let on she was awake- she was content just to observe.  
Thomas Hickey. A Templar. But he died years ago... odd. The rest of them, Assassins. All of them did something to influence the history of their factions.  
Finally, she opened her eyes. "My name is Élise de la Serre."  
As soon as she opened her mouth- the man standing beside her, a big man with red hair and an Irish accent- panicked and gave a terrified yelp.  
"Who said that?!"  
"Behind you, idiot." She laughed.  
"Élise de la Serre? French?" The woman in red suggested. Shao Jun. The inventor of the hookblade. Or so Élise thought. She and Arno liked to teach each other about their faction history.  
"Oui." She smiled. "No need for names. I already heard."  
"How long were you awake?" Malik asked.  
"Long enough." Élise stood up slowly and stretched. "And I'll have you know, I am a Templar."

***  
Leonardo happened to wake up as soon as the room erupted in chaos.  
"Another Templar?! Why the hell did they disarm me?!" Someone demanded in Irish brogue.  
"Watch your mouth!" Another man, younger.   
Leonardo sighed. These people were like Ezio. It was all about Templars. Why not art? He liked art. Ooh, and things that glowed.  
Which reminded him, there was that little sun above his head.  
He grinned and stood up on his sandbag- Hm, quite a comfortable seat. Maybe he'd build something like this when he got back.- trying to get a better look at the sun.  
"Whoa!" Someone suddenky shouted. Another female. She had red hair and a loud strong voice.  
The room went silent.  
"Who are you?" A darker skinned man asked.  
Leonardo bowed, almost loosing his balance on the sandbag. "Leonardo Da Vinci."  
"You're pulling my leg." The Irishman said dully. "Hope, you're hearing this, right?"  
"Damn right I am." The woman- Hope, he guessed- shook her head.  
"Leonardo Da Vinci." The man who spoke first smiled. "I am Adewalé. Those are Liam and Hope, Hickey and Shao Jun, Malik Al-Sayf,'and Élise de la Serre."  
"I wonder who'll wake up next. Maria Thorpe?" Liam asked. Hope laughed.  
"Who knows. This keeps getting more strange."

***  
Maria slowly opened her eyes.  
And was instantly aware of being stared at by seven other people.  
"Yes?" She asked irritably.  
"Um... do I dare?" A woman with red hair questioned.  
"I'll do it." A young man stood up- he had a weird accent. Not quite British, but... something else, too. "What's your name?"  
"Maria Thorpe."  
Across the room, a man who looked distinctly Irish smacked his own face.  
"And yours?" She continued.  
The man gestured to himself. "Thomas Hickey. Shao Jun, Malik, Hope, Liam, Adewalé, Élise, and Leonardo."  
"Malik?" Maria frowned. He sounded familiar. "Do you know an Altaïr?"  
Malik looked annoyed. "I don't just know him. He irritates me."  
She didn't know whether to answer that or not.

***  
Voices.  
Henry slowly opened his eyes.  
And nearly passed out again.  
Shoa Jun, Adewalé, Hope Jenson, Liam O'Brien, Thomas Hickey, Élise de la Serre, Malik Al-Sayf, Leonardo da Vinci, and Maria Thorpe stared back at him.  
"Um...." Was all he could manage. He recognized them from the countless paintings and codex images he had studied (And repeatedly tried to cram their information into those empty Frye twins' heads.).  
But what the fuck were they doing here.  
"Well?" Adewalé offered.  
Henry shrugged mentally. Did it matter? He had so many questions to ask all these people it was near insane. But....  
"I-I am Henry Green." He finally forced out.  
"Henry Green, huh? What's with the fancy getup?" Hickey asked.  
So Thomas Hickey was, in fact, and ass. Check that question off the mental list. "It's not fancy. It's 1863."  
"No way. It's only 1716." Adewalé said seriously.  
Élise scowled. "You're all wrong. It's 1789."  
"Stop!" Maria suddenly exlaimed. "No more times. We're all here, now, and we need to find a way to escape."  
"Says the Templar." Liam muttered.  
"What was that?"  
"Nothing."


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Acsister; Hm. Tough question: I don't know. In part, there's less workers in Abstergo at night. But mostly, it just feels right. :)

"I take it they've met each other." The supervisor studied the Assassins and Templars in the room beyond.  
"They seem to be getting along quite well." LeMay observed. She checked her watch."Much as I'd wish to interrogate them now, we still have anotber five minutes. Get ready. It's just you and me going in there."  
"Just you and me? No tranquilizers? In case you haven't noticed, these people are six feet and up."  
"Some of them." She corrected. "And what's Leonardo going to do? Paint you to death?"  
He sighed. "It's not Leonardo I'm worried about. It's Henry, Liam, Adewalé and friends."  
LeMay rolled her eyes. "Fine. Bring a pistol or something."  
"Nah." Nick smirked. "I wanna see if I can scare them with one of those Nerf guns."

***  
Adewalé watched the humorously clothed people behind the apparently-made-of-glass door with growing concern.  
"What's wrong, sir?" Liam broke away from where the others were questiong each other. Adewalé turned to him and raised his eyebrow. It wasn't often a man of pale skin called him 'sir'.  
Liam instantly shrugged, looking embarassed. "Something I said?"  
"No." Adewalé replied. He looked out at the people again. "See them?"  
"Yes. Funny clothes."  
He chuckled. "I agree, but I have some honest suspicions. Maybe..." He leaed in. "Maybe they're Templars."  
Liam looked a little unnerved by the prospect of his enemies. "But there are three in here with us. Maria, Élise, and Hickey."  
"Maria..." Adewalé gave the Irishman an unconvinced look. "Pay attention, man. Who married Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad?"  
"Maria. But so far... she's still a Templar for now."  
"Are you certain her decision was only partially spurred by her love for Altaïr?"  
Liam's head snapped up and he squinted at the Quartermaster. "You mean to say she had qualms about the Templars before she even met him?"  
He shrugged. "Either way... she won't be a Templar for long. Now let's put it to rest and focus on those louts."  
"Right." Liam said, turning his gaze back to the people outside.

***  
"Weren't you one of Haytham Kenway's lackeys?" Henry scrutinized the Assassins and Templars surrounding him. He doubted any of them were really pleased to be here, but...  
"Not a lackey. A friend." Hickey pouted. "Get it right."  
"Lackey." Élise said dryly. "Even I agree."  
"You're a Templar, too! You're supposed to help me out here!"  
"Who's Haytham Kenway?" Shao asked.  
Henry felt confused for a moment. "Wait, you don't- oh."  
He sighed. This was like dealing with Evie and Jacob. When both of them were drunk. And picking fights with their own Rooks. Alright, that was funny. What he was observing in this room was that each of them had been taken from seperate... well, times. 1863 being the latest, and the Crusades being the earliest.  
"A Templar Grandmaster." Élise offered.  
"Colonial Templar Grandmaster." Hickey snapped.  
"Enough." Hope raised her arms. "We're all unarmed. We're all stuck in this room. Why don't we try and work together to get out of here?"  
"Said no one ever." Hickey growled, corssing his arms defiantely. Élise smacked the back of his head.  
"Forget it. We're all helping each other escape and that's that. You're either with us or I strangle you."  
Allegiances aside, Henry agreed.

***  
"Fine, fine." Hickey mumbled.  
Honestly, these Assassins were going to be the death of him. Literally.  
"Why don't we just break the door?" Liam asked. "I think it's made of glass."  
"In case you didn't notice, some of them have muskets." Adewalé's eyes slid to the door again. "But...."  
"We've all been trained in chokeholds and such. Right?" Maria asked.  
"Chokeholds? No, no, no, no, no, not me. Uh-uh." Leonardo sat down and folded his arms, shaking his head wildely. "You need a painting, you need a sculpture, you need something that moves on its own, that's my job."  
"Hm. But didn't you design Ezio's poison blade for him?" Hope asked.  
Hickey rolled his eyes. "Let's just break the fucking glass!"  
"Question, what do we do when we get outside?" Shao raised her fists. "Beat them up?"  
"We'll have to." Malik said quietly. "Who gets the honors?"  
"We are not doing this! Well-well, fine! I'm staying in here!" Leonardo sounded panicked.  
"Alright, we'll come back for you. Just stay in here and be quiet." Adewalé whispered. "Got it?"  
"Yes!"

***  
Malik approached the door and halted just clear of it.  
The others positioned themselves on either side of the door, just out of sight of the people outside.  
"Ready? Count of three. One, two-"  
Malik put his foot right through the thing.  
The glass shattered completely, and with the shattering erupted chaos on the other side.  
He charged into the fight- not stoppong to admire those suns in the wall, or that glowing square on some sort of black box, or that little stick that crackled with electricity someone dropped. If he looked hard enough, there was a tiny hole in the cieling, like someone had thrown a rock at the roof and it went through.  
Even though he lacked an arm, Malik swiped a dagger- and odd feeling dagger- from someone's belt and stabbed them with it, then turned and slashed at a man's stomach.  
Around him, the other Assassins (And Templars- Whoa.) were performing, well, beautifully.  
While they fought, Malik noticed two people- A man in red and a woman with reddish pink hair- scurrying for one of the side doors.  
Caught up in the heat of the fight, he ignored them.

***  
Shao Jun ducked to avoid someone swinging a knife at her and dove, tackling her to the floor.  
She grabbed her head and slammed it into the ground, rendering her unconcious.  
"Behind you!" Liam shouted. She jumped to the side and twisted, grabbing the incoming enemy's arm and driving him right into the wall.  
Hope yowled as the woman behind her leapt into action and grasped her throat, sinking to the ground.  
Liam's eyes flashed and within seconds the man was...  
Shao was impressed. Hope's attacker was felled permanently in less than thirty seconds to the Irishman.  
She stole a moment to watch the battle around her.  
Hickey had obtained a dart gun from someone and was currently waving it around, shooting whoever dared come at him and yelling 'Yee-ha!'. What an odd Templar.  
Élise was fighting more gracefully, dodging, then placing her blows. Maria fought in a more.. masculine style. Shao Jun had heard of her. The tomboy Assassin-  
Her thoughts were halted by another attacker.

***  
Now this was a fight!  
Élise ducked and swung and punched as savagely as everyone else, although she was better.  
Quicker, too. Those childhood times of being chased by dogs guarding the apple orchards with Arno was paying off.  
At the memory of Arno, she fought harder. Surely he was somewhere. Even if he was an Assassin- she coud still work something out.  
Élise tripped a man and he went sprawling, right into Adewalé's arms. With a wicked grin, he yanked the man's rifle out of his hand and beat his head with it, knocking him out.  
"Only a few more left," He told her, tossing the rifle in her direction. Élise caught it and smiled.  
"Really? I haven't even broken a sweat yet."  
Élise raised her new weapon and took aim- That's what she was supposed to do, right? Aim, unlike Hickey, who was still shouting 'Yee-ha!' and embedding darts in his enemies.- shooting the woman sneaking up behind Adewalé. She fell, clutching her neck, and he turned to her with a grateful nod.  
They continued fighting.

***  
Maria was in her element.  
She lifted the little.... dartpipe?.... she had taken from the floor and fired at someone sneaking up on Hickey (What did 'Yee-ha' mean, anyway?) and quickly turned to knock the next woman attacking out.  
By God, they were almost done....  
Liam suddenly leapt to the side and smashed the last attacker's skull into the wall.  
Everyone immediately froze, the only sound their breathing.  
"Leonardo," She called, "You can come out now."  
"How many died?" Came the tiny voice.  
"Only one."  
"Fair enough." He poked his head out and immediately gasped. "So many new things! Oh, you found those weird blowdart thingies!"  
"You mean muskets?" Adewalé suggested.  
"No, blowdart thingies!"  
"Is that even a word?" Shao asked. "Yee-ha." Hickey moved the blowdart thing in Leonardo's direction, until Liam knocked it out of his hand.  
"Stop that. We need to focus on getting out of here." He said.  
"Everyone find a weapon. Doesn't matter what it is." Henry drew himself up and wiped blood from a cut on his lip. "Is everyone alright?"  
"That was fun." Élise grinned proudly. "I may actually work with Assassins again."  
"Not me!" Hickey declared.  
"No asked you." Maria laughed. Joking aside....  
She had just worked with Assassins.  
Maybe....  
No. She shook her head. The Templars were her calling.  
Surely. 

***  
Hope found herself a rifle and joined the search for an exit.  
They tried all sorts of doors, one of them leading to a room with a white seat that made a loud sucking noise. Liam had screamed and raced out of the room, smacking his head on the door.  
"Hey." Henry pulled the door handle on the last door. "It's not locked!"  
"Let's go!" Maria was the first past him, heading up the stairs.  
"Do you even know what lays beyond those doors?" Adewalé challenged. "Maybe we should stay here-"  
The miniature suns in the room started flashing red, along with a loud, piercing wail that made Hope cringe.  
"You were saying? Leonardo! Stop staring at the suns! You're going to go blind!" Shoa Jun barked at him.  
"Fine, fine, I'm coming." Leonardo shuffled up the stairs after a speechless Adewalé.  
As they left, Hope turned and studied the room.  
Whatever lay beyond had better be good, she thought.

***  
Liam had raced Élise up the stairs, and would have beat her if he hadn't tripped and smacked his head on the floor.  
"That's the second time!" Adewalé laughed, climbing past. Liam groaned.  
"Close the door behind you!" Henry shouted down the steps.  
"No, sure. Liam is perfectly fine." He was secretly laughing at himself.  
Or maybe that was the giddy feeling of having escaped.  
But they weren't out of the woods yet. The miniature suns were still flashing red and that loud noise was still wailing.  
He shuddered as he climbed the stairs. What were they doing gathered up there at the top?  
He stumbled again and swore so passionately even Shay would have called bullshit.  
Shay...  
Liam cursed again, more to the regret that he couldn't save his friend. But...  
Whatever Leonardo was screaming about must have been pretty... well, worth screaming about.

***  
Leonardo gaped at everything.  
Those gigantic, ginormus, insanely tall buildings.  
Those weird carriages that weren't horse drawn! With bright colors! And miniature suns built in!  
And- Dio mio!- were those tiny black comminicating devices people were talking into?!  
Hickey slapped him. "Stop screaming! You're making a scene."  
"Um... I don't think it's just him." Liam said gruffly. He pinched his sleeve. "I think we aren't wearing the right clothes."  
"Hm." Hope allowed them all outside, then closed the door. "Let's just go before we're caught. I feel like those red suns were a warning of some sort."  
"An alarm." Henry mused.  
"If it's an alarm, we need to get out of here. We'll need new clothes and..." Adewalé hastily tossed his weapon into the thing beside him with black crinkly stuff on the inside. Trash disposal? Who knew?  
The others followed suit, and Leondardo followed them as they started walking, happily gazing at the buildings and non-horse carriages.  
He had to duck out of the way as somone rode by on a two wheel contraption. The man cursed at him and raised his middle finger.  
What the hell kind of code was that?


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IcedFireFrenzy and PoisonHw; Liam's not very tiny, so just imagining that will everyone else (Probably a little smaller) racing past was funny to me :)

LeMay and the supervisor burst onto the top floor into Olivier's office just as the alarms began.  
"What's wrong?" He asked, sitting up in the chair.  
"Escapees- All of them." Nick said plainly. "You didn't tell us to bind their arms!"  
"Calm down." Melanie barked.  
"Calm down? That's the scond time!" He groaned. "We're missing something."  
"Call up Vidic for me, LeMay. Nickolas, check and see if it's possible to bring in Shay- He's a natural hunter. We just need to convince him we're not the enemy." Olivier said calmly, straightening out the papers on his desk.  
"Wait a minute, you're acting too calm." Nick said suspiciously.  
Olivier laughed. "This happened last time, you idiot. Besides, how long do you think they'll last? Five, ten minutes? Send out a report. But this time, don't hint that it's Abstergo. A band of oddly dressed people attacked and robbed someone's house. See?"

***  
For the tenth time that night, Adewalé reached out, grabbed Leonardo's collar, and yanked him back onto the sidewalk just in time for a horseless carriage to drive past. The driver- why the hell was she inside of the carriage?- slammed the wheel in front of her, emitting a loud 'honk!' that made Liam curse so loudly more people started staring at them.  
"Stay close to us, man. I know you're curious." Adewalé whispered, releasing Leonardo's collar. "You almost got hit."  
"But those carriages!"  
"I know, mate, I know." He met eyes with Henry. "Well? We can't keep walking about this... city. We need less conspicious clothes."  
"But for clothing we need money." Shao Jun said.  
"Why don't you leave it to the ladies for once?" Élise crossed her arms and pouted.  
Adewalé sighed. Templars. Oh, well. He trusted Shao and Hope could keep the two Templars in line. "Alright, go. We'll remain in one of the alleys and wait for you."  
"Hey! Are you guys doing some cosplay?!" A woman called from up the street.  
Henry looked confused, but nodded. "Yes!" He shouted back. "I suppose we're cosplaying."  
"What are you supposed to be?" The woman continued.  
After several frantic gestures to each other, Adewalé answered. "Assassins."

***  
While the men went and hid in the alley, Shao Jun and the other women removed the most flamboyent or conspicious clothes. Most of the frills and leather weapon holsters were tossed against the wall and Élise demanded no one touch herthings or by God she'd flay them.  
Personally Shao didn't care. All she had to do was ask Malik to watch her clothes and he nodded. A good guy.  
Once the conspicious parts oftheir outifts were gone, Shao looked out of the alley and nodded to herself. "We look just like them."  
"Only more beautiful." Liam said from behind them. Hope laughed and threw a rock at his foot.  
"Come on. We have little time to get this done; it's possible we were chased." Maria beckoned from the alley entrance.  
Shao Jun was the first to figure out what the currency was, exactly. Little green slips of paper.  
"A hundred." She murmured to herself, removing the green paper from a woman's forgotten wallet. "A hundred what?"  
She looked up and met eyes with Hope, who worked with Élise on the other side of the black road with the horseless carriages. She held up five green papers with 'twenty' on them.  
Shao grinned. They were making good process.

***  
Hope crept a little closer to the man in front of her, careful not to let anyone see. A few green papers were stuffed into his back pocket, and a loud, crinkly white bag dangled from his fingers as he walked. Trusting the noise would conceal her footsteps, she darted forward, and slipped the paper oit of his pocket.  
"How much have you got?" Élise murmured. "No one carries this much money on them in France."  
"Shao and Maria have a fair amount. What say we go back?" She counted the ammount she had.  
"Fair enough. I never thought I'd do this."  
"Work with Assassins?"  
"No. Work with Assassins other than Arno."  
She guessed Arno was a friend. But still... Élise worked with an Assassin? Hope shrugged. "I never thought my best friend would die."  
Élise looked torn.  
"What's wrong?"  
"Walk with me." She said, motioning back toward the alley. "Do you want to know something about Shay?"  
Hope nodded. Never trust Templars....  
"Well, he-"  
"I think we got more than you!" Maria exclaimed. She and Shao came up the path, ignoring looks from people walking by. Hope looked back at Élise.  
"I'll.. I'll tell you later." Was all she got in reply.

***  
Maria prided herself on her thieving abilities.  
So she was the first into the alley, waving her prize.  
"How much?" Henry must have recognized the money, the way his eyebrows were lifted.  
Maria held up a 'hundred'. Those eyebrows climbed higher.  
"And the rest of you? Let me count them." He held out his hands.  
She gave him the money and watched as Hope (She looked a little disappointed, especially when her gaze settled on Élise.) forked over hers.  
They spoke together in hushed voices- mostly musing about just what sort of world this was- until Henry sorang to his feet. "Three hundred dollars!"  
"Three hundred say again?" Malik asked.  
"Listen." Henry held the money to his chest and regarded them with thoughtful eyes. "I don't know what size you all wear, but I'll try to be accurate. You'll have to stay here."  
"Why?" Leonardo flapped one of his hands. "But I must see more of this world!"  
"So we don't get caught." Hickey snapped his fingers. "Gotta hand it to the Assassin. That's brains."  
Maria held up her hands. "Quiet. All of you. These clothes aren't permanent. We just look obvious in these ones."  
"Fine." Leonardo grumbled. "But I am the first to try these new clothes on."

***  
Once Henry was gone, Élise wondered if she'd done the right thing, refraining from telling Hope Shay had lived. The woman sat with her back to the wall, gazing at her hands with a look of concentration. Probably trying to figure out what she was trying to tell her.  
Down the alley, Adewalé had challenged Liam to a friendly wrestling match, for something to do. Maria cheered them on, Shao and Malik could've cared less, Hickey and Leonardo shouted for Adewalè and Liam, respectively.  
"Hey." She said, walking up to Hope.  
"What were you going to say earlier?"  
"What if someone told you... a person you thought had died... wasn't dead....?"  
Hope shrugged. "They're full of shit."  
"I thought as much."  
"Oh?"  
Élise looked away. "Never mind."

***  
Henry, avoiding stares from a fair amount of people, walked up to the person he presumed to be a cashier (Everyone was going to him and paying. But then, there were at least ten of the same counters and the building was filled with 'beep-beep'ing.) and set the money down for the clothes he'd bought.  
The man eyed him. "Cosplay?"  
What the hell is that? "Yes."  
"Who are you supposed to be?"  
"You've never heard of him. But he's someone... Amazing." Ha. Take that, Jacob. More brains in this skull.  
"Why so many clothes?"  
"My family's coming over. They refused to buy anything not from India, so I had to come here."  
"Ah."  
Henry pretended he wasn't fascinated by the little... Precursor artifact?.... the man was using in front of him. Several beeps later, he walked out fo the store, carrying the clothes in the crinkly white bag.  
When Henry arrived at the alley, he tossed the bag onto the ground and crossed his arms. "I tried to go according to robe color. Have fun... why are you two so tired?"  
Adewalé had stood up and helped Liam to his feet. Both were panting.  
"Don't ask." Liam mumbled. "I just got my ass whipped."

***  
Hickey laughed. "Assassin got wrecked!"  
"Shut your trap." Adewalé clapped Liam's hand, sending a surge of pride through the Irishman. Adewalé as a young man had beaten him in a fight! Alright, maybe it should have been disappointment in himself, not pride. But....  
"What color did I get?" He asked Henry.  
The Assassin shrugged. "You got a green shirt. Everyone got black pants, primarily because it will serve us better if we're sneaking around at night. Malik got dark blue, Hope got purple, Shao Jun got red, Hickey got cerulean-"  
"Cerulean?" The Templar asked haughtily. "You got me a color I didn't know existed?"  
"No, you dolt. It's a shade of blue." Henry rolled his eyes. "Leonardo got maroon-"  
"Cool!"  
"Stop interupting." He seemed to be trying not to laugh. "Maria got brown, Adewalé got gray, and I got light green."  
"Wait, did you get anything back?" Liam asked. "In change, I mean."  
"Yes. I got a hundred dollars."  
"What are dollars?!" Hope asked.

***  
Hickey shoved Malik aside and held up his shirt. It looked like a badass shade of blue. "Yeah, bitches, look what I got!"  
Maria slapped him. "Don't you ever say that again!"  
"I actually agree with the Templar." Adewalé exchanged his 1700's clothes for the gray shirt and black pants, pulling them on when everyone else turned their backs.  
Well, maybe that was the only reason Hickey was alright with being away from the Grandmaster. Haytham rarely swore. The worse was a 'damn' or a 'hell'. Once he said the 'F' word, but he was half drunk and Charles was managing to make himself really annoying. And he rarely permitted anyone else to do so around him.  
Overall, Hickey thought, while he swapped out clothes, this would be an interestingly different night.

***  
Malik liked navy blue.  
He was the first one done changing, and he stood at the edge of the alley, looking out at the world.  
People walked by, hardly paying him any mind, speaking into little black boxes. A few rode odd contraptions, sporting two wheels and (This looked more like a torturing device for someone's manhood.) a very odd seat.  
Then there was the subject of those horseless carriages.  
They were all sorts of colors, bright and dark, with miniature suns built into the front of them. They made loud noises that made Liam swear passionately every time they sounded, and people were apparently riding inside of them.  
What?  
Why? How? Did Altaïr have anything to do with this?  
Malik looked back at Maria, who stood with the other women- their backs were turned to allow the men privacy, as the men had done for them- and smiled to himself.  
Should he tell her about Altaïr's crush?

***  
Leonardo wanted to know everything.  
How those carriages went so fast with no horses. How those people could fit inside of them. What those tiny boxes were for. Why people were using them.  
He finished pulling on his clothes and hurried to join Malik, still hitching up his pants. "What do you know about this world? Anything good?"  
"Afraid not." Malik muttered. "But it's so.... interesting."  
Leonardo nodded. "That it is. Maybe I'll build one of those horseless carriages. They look simply marvelous!"

***  
Several miles away, Desmond fell out of his chair.  
He had decided it'd be a good night to stay up late (Which eventually turned into an all-nighter.) playing Call of Duty at his father's house. Shaun and Rebecca had long since fallen asleep in seperate rooms- They decided to stay together for a while, just figuring out whether or not to attack Abstergo's database. While he was playing, his phone had suddenly pinged and displayed a message about a robbery. People in odd, really old fashioned clothes, unarmed at this point. If he read the names...  
Desmond rubbed his eyes (It was three thirty in the morning, after all.) he swore those were...  
No way.  
"Daaaaaad!!!"


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PoisonHw; I'm not sure if Shaun and Rebecca will be able to peel him off the roof!  
> salanaland; Didn't think of that! ;)  
> IcedFireFrenzy; Nailed it- For some reason I can picture him using modern day slang before anyone else even realizes it exists.  
> Everyone; So should I add Shay?

The supervisor folded his arms over his chest and stared out over the floor.  
Only two people were working with the Animi (They had recently received a sample of King Tut's blood and were so close to finding out the real cause of death.) so it was, for the most part, silent.  
The alarms had long since ceased blaring, and Nick wondered if the Assassins and Templars downstairs had managed to kill every guard. Probably. Hickey was probably wailing 'For Haytham!' while he did it. He chuckled and shook his head. Sometimes that dude was a little clingy.  
"Hey." LeMay appeared beside him, chipper as ever. "We made contact with the numbskull who did Shay's memories. We recently moved them down below for more.... serious work, but they agreed on a possible extraction date from his memories. Told us not to fuck anything up or they'd be pissed."  
"Fond of his memories?"  
"Yeah, the numbskull's pretty picky. Shoulda seen them over Maria Thorpe's memories."  
"Numbskull?"  
"Long story."

***  
Henry paced the alley. "Alright, we have clothing and some food. Maybe we should- Guys? Hello? Are you listening?"  
Hope, Liam, Hickey, and Élise were clustered together at the back of the alley, while Adewalé, Maria, Shao, Malik, and Leonardo chattered away without him.  
"What's so fascinating about the money, Hope?" He asked. Did he dare?  
"Benjamin's on this!" Hope waved the bill in the air.  
"How did he get in there? That's a really tiny painting." Liam added.  
Oh.  
Right.  
Henry took a deep breath, as though he was about to explain- "I can't tell you."  
"What?" Hickey demanded. "Why?"  
"Weeeeeeell..... it's a really, really, really complicated matter." Henry shrugged. "Listen, if you want to, carry the money, but for God's sake, don't loose it. Now who's hungry?"  
"I am!" Maria shouted.  
"Not so loudly!"

***  
Adewalé shrugged. "I'm hungry, but it doesn't seem like there's anywhere to eat."  
"I know." Leonardo closed his eyes and breathed deeply for a moment. "I would say I smell food, but I can't tell if it's food or not."  
"Food? Where?" Liam chose the wrong time to zone in on the conversation.  
Adewalé laughed. He was liking this Irishman more and more. "We're contemplating it, my friend."  
"Maybe there's someplace nearby? A small shop?" Malik suggested.  
Adewalé nodded to Henry. "Why don't we go out to look? We're clearly the brains of this operation..."  
"Not fair!" Hickey yowled. Hope slapped him with the hundred dollar bill.  
"What's not fair is that he's right and you're giving him grief for it."  
Henry nodded, his eyes flickeeing with uncertainty. "Alright... everyone else needs to stay here. Shao Jun, you're in charge."  
The Assassin nodded. "Are you taking the money?"  
Adewalé looked back at the small group of colonial Assassins (And Templars.). "I don't think we'll be relieving them of that money anytime soon. For now we're just looking for places to eat."  
"Now come on," Henry said impatiently. "These fellows won't feed themselves."

***  
On the contrary.... Malik huffed to himself and kicked the wall out of boredom. "Why do we have to stay here?"  
"Because it's sensible." Shao looked out at the passerby in the streets. "Two of us getting caught is better than all of us."  
Malik gazed at Maria, who stood across from him, for a few seconds, wondering if his boredom was worth Altaïr's little secret.  
He inwardly snickered. Altaïr was a brother to him (An irritating, full of shit brother.) and this surely only counted as teasing.  
At least in Malik's Book of Morals.  
"Maria." He blurted suddenly.  
She gave him a nod. "Yes?"  
"You've met Altaïr?"  
She rolled her eyes. "I have. My last memory of him is sitting in the ship." Was he wrong, or did something flash in her eyes?  
"Well...."  
"Well what? Spit it out."  
"He likes you." Malik ran away before she could respond.

***  
Maria stared after Malik as he stumbled over to meet the other Assassins and Templars.  
"Um... should I ask?" Shao Jun questioned.  
"Altaïr?" Leonardo asked.  
Maria shrugged. "No clue. I wonder...."  
Malik had better not have been kidding or she was going to wring his throat if she found out. Without Altaïr's knowing it.  
Shao understood and seemed to be thinking. After a while she shook her head and went back to gazing outside.  
"So what do you think this place is?" Maria finally asked.  
"Maybe... maybe it's Precusor? Who knows? Whatever it is, it looks interesting."  
"I have a preposition." Leonardo said quietly. "Would you like to hear it?"  
"Any idea works, Leonardo." Shao said.  
"Well.... what if this is the future?"

***  
Shao Jun sighed. The future? Maybe it was the future. It was quite possible, after all, this place was using English. She was pretty sure it wasn't the prime language of the Precursors. Right?  
"That's a plausible theory." Maria said. "But are you sure?"  
He shrugged. "It's only a theory. And idea based off my surroundings. But, it if this is the future, I'm damned if I intend to stay in this little alley."  
"You're thinking of leaving?" Shao asked.  
"Not leaving now- I'm too hungry for that- but maybe later I'll walk out and have a look around. This place is full of so many weird sounds and absolutely mind boggling size scales." Leonardo pointed to the buildings around them. Shao had to tilt her head back as far as it would go to see the skyline.  
"It looks like it scrapes the sky." She murmured.   
Leonardo snapped his fingers. "That's what I'll call them! Skyscrapers!"  
"Skyscrapers." Maria grinned and looked at the Assassins and Templars still huddled at the back of the alley. It appeared they were laughing and joking around (Templars and Assassins would never get along that well on a good day, Shao reasoned.) "Have any of you heard of skyscrapers?"  
They stared at her blankly until Liam smirked and pointed upwards at the building beside them. "Damn." Shao chuckled. "He's the only one who knows."

***  
Leonardo went quiet for a while, content to study his surroundings.  
Off in the distance, thunder rumbled, a cat yowled, someone screamed, something shattered and he swore he heard another one of those duck sounds the horseless carriages made.  
"I want to explore." Maria crept up to the alley entrance and crossed her arms, ignoring ofd looks from the people walking by.  
"We have to wait for Adewalé and Henry to get back. Then we can do this together- as Assassins." Shao put a hand on her arm. "But aside from that, this place looks incredible."  
"I agree." Leonardo declared.  
Behind him, more laughter exploded from the group of Assassins and Templars. "Ezio told me your two sides would never get along."  
"People change." There was a hint of longing in Maria's voice (Although Leonardo wasn't a people reader.).  
"Maybe." Shao shrugged. "Do the people change? Or does it just seem that way?"  
Leonardo laughed. "That's deep thinking. I thought Assassins were quick witted and more... speedy. At least the younger ones."  
"Speedy." Shao smiled. "Now that's a word I like to hear applied to us."

***  
Hickey. Was laughing. With Assassins. He never really figured this was something he'd do. But Liam and Hope were a funny pair, and Élise and Malik's remarks added to the humor. Hickey knew who Shay was- and was rather jealous of him; Haytham seemed more inclined to come to the Irishman more than he did anyone else.- so when Liam and Hope recounted a time they found him drunk and decided to have a little fun (Bringing him along on an easy assassination.) everyone laughed. Although...  
Élise kept looking at Hope and Liam nervously, like she knew something they didn't.  
But it wasn't.... Evil. Not a Charles Lee I- Know- Something- You- Don't look. More of a I- Know- Something- That- Will- Really- Hurt.  
She met eyes with him and he looked away, refocusing on the joke Malik and the others were laughing about.  
Something about Templars lacking feelings.

***  
Élise liked jokes. She liked puns and phrases that sounded wrong and getting Arno to run through apple orchards while being chased by guard dogs. But the truth about Shay was beginning to paw at the back of her mind and damn it... she'd have to tell them soon. From what she'd understood by their pained expressions earlier, neither of the two Assassins knew of Shay's survival.  
But she wasn't going to rest on that thought for as long as possible. Élise wanted to laugh.  
"So now what do we do?" Liam asked, when the laughter died down.  
"Maybe we could race." Hickey suggested.  
"Wrestling is better." Hope shook her head. "I'll bet I can take you, Liam."  
"Did she just go there? She just went there." The Irishman punched her arm good-naturedly and Hope narrowed her eyes at him, although she was grinning.  
"Oh? Oh, I went there."  
"Let's not argue about who went where." Élise rolled her eyes. "We're in a new place with people we may or may not know.... but, I agreed with Hope. Wrestling is better."

***  
Liam tugged at the green collar of his shirt nervously and circled Hope, his fists clenched.  
Around them, the Assassins and Templars watched with grins and snickers.  
"So...." He began.  
Hope smirked.  
"Don't give me that look."  
She continued to do so.  
"Come on. I thought you kept that look only for Shay when he-"  
She punched him in the belly and jumped back, like she thought to avoid the string of curses from his mouth.  
Finally he straightened up and raised his fists again. "I've fallen for it once. Not again."  
"Oh?"  
And suddenly- this was completely embarassing- Liam's face was up against the wall, and Hope was leaning on his shoulders with her hands. "I win?" She asked.  
"Fine, fine!" He gasped, trying hard not to laugh.  
Hope nodded and released him. "You fight like a kitten."  
Liam stepped back from the wall, waited until Hope's back was turned to talk to Leonardo, then he pounced like the kitten she was calling him.

***  
Okay.  
So maybe calling him a kitten was what spurred Liam to wait until her back was turned, then reignite the fight.  
She grinned at him again, and this time he grinned back, then danced back to avoid the punch aimed at his mouth, never breaking eye contact.  
"Did I hurt your pride?" Hope asked, while they circled each other.  
"Don't be beat by a girl again!" Hickey shouted. He gave a muffled shriek as both Maria, Shao, and Élise jumped on him, fists flying.  
"Not really. Achilles once said that, too. Until that day a few hears ago when I beat him on the training course."  
"Uh-huh." She grinned again, and this time he was too slow, and she caught his belly.  
Liam swore- that was something he was growing particularily fond of- and bent over, and Hope took the time to try and-  
She realized it was a ruse just as he grabbed her arm, whirled both of them around, and pressed her back against the wall.  
The men in the small group went up in shouts and laughter.  
Hope rolled her eyes as Liam released her. "Oh, posh. I was thinking about the money."  
His eyes widened. "How do you suppose he got his face on that thing, anyway?"  
"No idea." She shrugged. "Maybe we could ask Leonardo."

***  
Desmond stuck his phone in his dad's face and waited for him to understand.  
"What? You woke me up just to tell me about- Holyfuckingshitareyoukiddingme?"  
"Nope. We need to find them before Abstergo does." Desmond said. He looked longingly at his gaming session, the Call of Duty screen serenly gazing up at him. Sorry. Not tonight.  
"This is a cover up." William muttered. "No way people show up with those names and those clothes and break into somebody's house. Not only that, but why did they just out Leonardo? No last name?"  
"Da Vinci." Desmond nearly dropped the phone at this revelation. "It must stand for Da Vinci."  
His dad sighed. "Alright, well.... let's go. Wake up Shaun and Rebecca. I'll get the car ready."  
"Will do."


	7. Chapter 7

They brought Shay in not too long after the phone call was made to Vidic.  
"Who the hell is working on the dosage for these guys? That wasn't nearly enough!" LeMay exclaimed- Shay had begun to stir as soon as they dropped him in Liam's old room.  
The site the supervisor and Melanie jad come back to was rather bloody.  
But the security league dealt with it, and aside from a suspicious hole in the roof that looked like one of Shay's rifle bullets, everything was damn near back to normal.  
"Forget it." Nick grumbled. "Give me some modern clothes and a pistol. I'll show him the ropes right here, right now."  
"You're sure? Vidic says to let them recover first." A tech said nervously.  
"Yeah. Now do as I said, my job may be on the line."

***  
Shay sat there and stared.  
This scrawny little fellow wanted him to put those clothes on and hold that weapon? The clothes were alright. The shirt was black and red, the pants were black and those shoes looked absolutely ridiculous. But that weapon? He called it a gun. It looked more like a tiny piece of metal that some kid had made.  
Add to that the fact that this place felt vaguely familiar, even though it was definately... different.  
"Hey. Are you listening?" The man asked. "We just want your help. A few Assassins escaped capture. We want you to find them. Hurt them only if you have to, but don't kill them." He handed the clothes to Shay, and out the weapon on the bed. "This here is a nice little pistol. More high-tech than you may be used to. Works the same way, though. I'll lead you out when you're done changing. And....."  
Shay narrowed his eyes at him. He wore the ring of the Templars, yes. He could probaboy trust him, but, still. Haytham had trained him to be suspicious.  
"You'll see some weird shit out there. Horseless carriages, miniature suns like that one above your head. Really big buildings. Cars, lightbulbs, and skyscrapers in that order. The black things people talk into are phones."  
Shay rolled his eyes and nodded. "Alright."  
"So.... There you go."  
When he returned, Shay was sitting on the bed in his new clothes (The belt he had been given was refusing to work and in his frustration he threw it against the wall and left it there.) examining the pistol.  
"Follow me." He said. "And don't act suprised. Believe it or not, you've seen this stuff.... but here." As they walked, he showed Shay some... images of the person he was looking for. Just the one Indian man named Henry, and any comrades he may have had.  
That's it? No, Shay, I know your confused, but it's alright? Even Haytham would say that. Even Achilles.  
He obediantly followed him through groups of similarily clad people, who stared at him, up a flight of stairs, and then into... the outside. The man told Shay to conceal the pistol and turned him loose, although he could feel his eyes boring into his back as he walked away with a sense of confusion and awe.  
It was time to hunt again.

***  
Adewalé wondered what a McDonald's was.  
He wanted to know what this 'Subway' place served and what the hell was a Golden Corral?  
"You know any of these places?" Henry asked.  
"No. Which one looks the friendliest?"  
"The one with the big 'M'." Henry squinted at the bright neon yellow sign. Jaysus, not even Calico was fond of that color. Adewalé smiled at the memory of the pirate. "Sound alright?"  
"There's food."  
"I guess we'll go get the others." Henry turned back the way they came.  
Adewalé kept his gaze on the big 'M' for a while before following the Assassin, wondering if it was a good idea to bring the obnoxious one inside (Hickey. Who the hell was Haytham?).  
Well.  
Maybe it was.  
After all, Templars eat, too.

***  
Henry trotted into the alley to find Hope standing over Liam, grinning.  
Around them, the Assassins and Templars laughed (Templars and Assassins laughing? Together? Holy shit.)  
"What's going on here?" Adewalé asked.  
"Well, he thought he could beat me a second time." Hope grinned. "As you can see, he was mistaken."  
Henry crossed his arms. "We found somewhere to eat."  
"Really?" Liam sat up and swatted Hope's leg. "Do they serve anything good?"  
"How should we know? It has a giant M on top." Adewalé shrugged.  
"Are you sure we should go for anything to eat?" Malik questioned.  
"What color was the 'M'?" Leonardo sounded curious. Henry shushed them and held out his arms.  
"We'll only stay long enough to get food. Then we'll come back and eat it here or somewhere else."  
"I'm hungry." Hickey whined. Élise slapped him.  
"I agree with her." Maria and Shao said unanimously.  
Henry sighed. They all meant well, and they had all done well, but this time had them confused enough they were acting like Jacob and Evie.  
No, not as bad as Jacob.  
Nothing topped Jacob.

***  
Hope was the first to leave the alley, ahead of the others.  
She held in her hands the money- With Benjamin Franklin's face on it!- and scanned for the big bright 'M' Adewalé and Henry had told them about.  
"I'll get you yet." Liam came up beside her and folded his arms.  
"Sure you will." Her eyes had locked with someone walking up the street. He was about Liam's height, maybe a little shorter, with black hair and brown eyes, and a scar across one eye. He wore black pants and a black shirt with some kind of red marking in the middle, in the shape of a checkmark, and he shuffled along with his hands stuffed in his pockets. He was scanning the roads every now and then, like he was searching for someone.  
Hope suddenly halted and grabbed Liam's arm tightly, stopping everyone behind them.  
"Outta my way!" Hickey blared.  
"Liam... Liam, look."  
"Oh, for fuck's sake maybe it's some kind of sale- Is that Shay?"  
Shay's brown eyes had widened and his mouth dropped open.  
"Do you know him?" Adewalé asked.  
"Traitor." Liam snarled. Hope noticed he looked relieved despite his behavior.  
Shay's eyes had slid to all of them, and now he was walking forward.  
"Um...." Henry didn't finish his sentence before Shay stood in front of them, his arms crossed.  
"Who are you?" Maria demanded.  
"Shay Cormac." Shay looked at Henry. "Someone's looking for you."  
"Looking for me?" Henry stepped in front of Hope and Liam protectively. "Oh?"  
Shay's eyes flashed. He looked so much different from when she'd last seen him. Less casual. More... orderly. "Yeah, they are."

***  
Okay.  
Élise knew about this Shay Cormac. He had apparently been in Versailles to watch over Benjamin Franklin in 1776. Hope and Liam, however, were taking this how anyone else would.  
"You can't be Shay." Liam murmured. "Shay died earlier tonight. Chevalier shot him."  
"Um... who is Chevalier?" Shao Jun asked.  
Shay's brow knit. "Chevalier?"  
Élise wasn't sure if she should speak up and tell Liam and Hope that no, their friend had indeed survived.  
"Come on, can we just drop this lout and go get some food?" Hickey griped loudly. Great. As if people weren't staring enough.  
"Lout? Who are you calling a lout?" Shay's voice took on a threatening tone and he started for Hickey, stopped only by Liam shoving his shoulder with one hand.  
"Get away from us." Liam growled.  
"Get your hands off me!" Shay recoiled and fixed his gaze on Henry. "I have to bring you back to Abstergo."  
"Abstergo?" Maria inquired.  
"Those dicks? Oh, posh, Haytham would say." Hickey declared. Élise shushed him.  
"You're coming with me." Shay said plainly.  
"Liar." Hope muttured. "He's not Shay."  
Well, things were going fine until he showed up.

***  
Something had to bedone about this.  
Maria stepped up behind Liam and whispered in his ear, "You go for his arms. We'll both push him against the wall and get him under control."  
"He can't be Shay." Liam sounded horrified.  
"I know, I know."  
"You'll help me?"  
"Of course."  
"But you're a Templar."  
"I still don't like him."  
He nodded.  
One minute later, Liam had Shay flattened against the wall, both of them with the front of the other's shirt balled up in their fists.  
People walked by, staring at them and muttering things under their breath.  
"Laim, back away." Shao said, grabbing his shoulder.  
Liam brushed her off. "Think you're so clever to pretend you're Shay, huh? Huh?"  
"I was about to say the same for you." Shay pushed off the wall and jumped on Liam's back, grabbing his neck in a headlock.  
The two stumbled onto the ground and rolled there for a minute, each trying to gain the upper hand while everyone else just watched, too stunned to do anything.

***  
Shao Jun was the first to leap into action.  
She pulled Shay off Liam and threw him against the wall, suprised by how light he was. Despite being so tall and definately not just skin and bone. It was an Assassin trait.  
"Calm down!" She snapped.  
Hope helped Liam to his feet, both of them glaring at Shay.  
Shao felt something poke her ribs and looked down, suddenly worried he had a weapon.  
He held a little... gun... and grinned at her with a sad look in his eyes.  
"He's armed." She said quietly.  
Auddenly the Assassins and Templars jumped on him, their fists flying.  
Shay howled and darted out of her grasp, escaping into the nearest alley.  
Ignoring looks from others, they followed, to find him standing stock still, feet planted wide, both hands on the weapon trained to them.  
"I'll do it." His voice shook.  
"No, Shay." Adewalé said firmly. He looked at Leonardo.  
The Italian was behind them, his arms crossed, shaking his head back and forth wildly.  
"Don't worry, we're not killing him." Élise said gently.  
"Show him out so he doesn't have to watch this." Liam flexed his fingers and spoke through clenched teeth.  
Malik and Élise ushered him out without a word.

***  
Hickey loved a good fight.  
He stood with Hope and Liam, his fists balled.  
"Come on, you Irish fuck. Show me what you got." He taunted. Liam smacked the back of his head.  
"One; I am not a fuck. Two; There's more than one Irishman here, you idiot."  
"Still." Hickey pretended his pride wasn't hurt.  
Either way, this stand off had to end.  
Shay was swinging the pistol at whoever moved, biting his lip so hard it bled.  
"Shay Cormac. 1731- Unknown." Henry started. "Trained as an Assassin until he was sent to Lisbon under direct orders from Achilles Davenport-"  
Shay's hands shook.  
Hickey felt a small surge of satisfaction and jumped forward, easily able to disarm him. Too easily.  
Now in possession of the odd-looking gun, he held it out in front of him and pointed it at the Irishman. "I'll do it." He quoted.  
Shay looked angry as Henry began to descirbe what happened at Lisbon and started forward, ignlring the gun threat.  
"Uh, Liam, Hope, he's your friend!" Hickey called nervously. "Should I shoot?"  
"No!" Hope shouted. "Shay, calm down. Henry, shut up, you're making it worse. Look, we can work together on this."  
"Templars and Assassins will never work together!" Shay snarled, never looking away from Hickey's newfound gun.  
"Uh, would you believe what we've been doing the past few hours." Maria rolled her eyes. "I'm a Templar. Hickey's a Templar."  
Shay was slowly beginning to relax.  
Slowly.  
Hickey felt disappointed; Now what was he going to do with the gun?

***  
Liam shared a look with Hope. Trust him?  
She sighed, I don't know.  
Shay had walked over to the wall and slid down until he sat with it against his back, his knees to his chest.  
"Aw." Hickey groaned.  
Adewalé snatched the gun from his hand. (Liam thought it was a gun.) "I'll be taking that."  
"What?! Why?!"  
"No one trusts the likes of you with these guns, my friend." Adewalé chuckled. "Nothing personal."  
Liam went and knelt in front of Shay. "There's no way you survived."  
"Of course I did."  
"Well." Hope came up beside him and met Shay's eyes. "I have a way of knowing."  
"Oh?" Shay asked. "Do tell, I'd love to hear it."  
"What am I, Shay?"  
He almost smiled. "You're the devoted housekeeper."

***  
Malik looked anxiously back at the alley entrance. "It got quiet."  
"Really quiet." Élise agreed.  
Leonardo was studying some form of art on the wall. At least, he called it that. Malik honestly didn't see how big, bright pink bubble letters spelling 'Bitch' was art.  
"Will you look at this. Lovely, isn't it?" He asked.  
Malik and Élise shared a look.  
"Ah,'yes," He said, "It is lovely. Look, we're going to make sure they're all right. Would you like to come?"  
Leonardo shook his head again. "No! Blood is not for me!"  
"Um..." Élise looked at a loss for words. "I don't think it's wise to stick around out here."  
"Why? What do you mean?"  
"Just come with us." Malik grasped his arm gently.  
"Fine." Leonardo huffed. "I'm covering my eyes, though."  
Élise and Malik suppressed their snickers, and the Italian looked sharply at them.  
"What's so funny?"  
Malik shook his head. Between Hickey and Leonardo....  
Idiots.  
I'm surrounded by idiots.

***  
Leonardo nervously looked in. "Did anyone die?"  
Nope. He smiled to himself.  
"I think we have a new friend." Hickey rolled his eyes. "What happened at Lisbon anyway?"  
Liam shot him a look from where he was crouched by Shay. Hope was actually hugging the Templar.  
Really, though. Ezio said that Assassins and Templars would never get along.  
Maybe he was...  
No.  
Ezio was never wrong.  
Unless-  
Leonardo shook himself. However uninvolved he wished to remain, the prospect of the two sides working together pleased him. Ezio would stop asking him to fix weapons and instead make him tools for painting and drawing.  
That, Leonardo figured, would make a much better world.

***  
"Oh, for fuck's sake. We don't even get a British fellow this time. At least Haytham had a proper speech pattern." Shaun rolled out of bed and straightened his hair out.  
"There's Maria." Desmond tried valiantly to defend his ancestor. And failed.  
"Please. I meant a man." Shaun motioned to the door with his hand. "Now get out! Or I'll clout you on the ear."  
"Too much time in the Aminus?"  
"I only got in there once yesterday. And it was for the first time in my life."' Shaun rolled his eyes. "Those phrases were so messed up in a funny way."  
"Says the British guy."  
"Get out!!"


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IcedFireFrenzy; McDonalds does serve Pepsi ;)

Henry (Secretly pleased the others followed him unquestionably, considering they were some of history's most famous figures, at least for the Assassins.) walked out of the alley without a second thought. The others followed, although Liam and Hope walked farther behind, chattering away with the new man.  
Shay Cormac.  
The Assassin turned Templar.  
Henry didn't dare ask if Shay had forgotten his mission. It seemed he had, the way he was carrying himself. His shoulders were hunched and his eyes held suspicion for all, and Liam and Hope included, though they didn't seem to notice it.  
Adewalé stepped up beside him and motioned to the place ahead of them, with the big 'M'. He must have hidden Shay's gun.  
"Should we all gp in?"  
He thought about it for a moment. "Hickey might give us away. Just make sure they serve food and bring some out for us. It's not like we need an entire horse."  
"You make a fair point." Adewalé dropped back for a moment, then reappeared at his side with the money from Hope. "I didn't even have to ask. Just took it from her hand."  
"Weird. Shay's clearly suspicious of them, but they don't care." Henry murmured. "What happened to distrusting anyone new?"  
"Who knows? They're talking like they thought he was dead, or something close." The Assassin replied. He started forward, putting out a hand to halt Henry. "I'll be back. Make sure they don't get into trouble."

***  
Adewalé make his way into the place with the 'M'- called McDonald's- and surveyed the room. Brightly painted and lots of screaming children. To the right of him, a few people in funny clothes with weird hats operated machines that glowed, similar to Edward's ravings (Alright, daydreams was less harsh.) about the Observatory. Maybe he had found a miniature version?  
He dared walk up to one of the people up front and crossed his arms. It must have worked like a regular tavern.....?  
"So what can I get you?" The woman was chipper almost instantly.  
"Uh..." Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, being the one to get the food.  
"I can give you some suggestions."  
Damn. "Sure."  
"Well, there's anyone of those burgers above my head and a small side."  
His mind was blanking, staring at that menu. "The first ones to the left." Whatever they were.  
"Alright." The woman told him a number, asked him to remember it, and gave him a cup that was miraculously made of paper, it seemed.  
Adewalè stood for a few moments, not sure what to do with it, until someone sauntered over to a large machine with mutliple little logos on it, pressed their cup to a metal thing, then watched as some kind of drink filled it.  
He looked at his cup, the machine, the cup, and the machine again. This was going to get more weird than the last three hours.  
Adewalé copied their movements and, finally, his number was called.  
He got his food- that bag was so annoying, and what the hell was it made of? More paper?- and promptly left, glad to be out of that place, however good it smelled.

 

***  
Maria looked up from where she sat on the bench with Shao Jun and Hickey. She had been, unfortunately, caught in the middle of their argument about whether or not rope dart were useful in society. The fight was getting rather loud and people were staring.  
Adewalé came and spoke with Henry, who was leaning against the wall talking quietly to Leonardo, Malik, and Élise- sitting with their backs to the wall- then showed him a bag made of paper with words on it and a cup, also made of paper.  
Maria pushed herself up off the bench and went to stand with them, easing the bag from Adewalé's hand and peering in.  
"Smells good."  
"The inside of that place smelled better." He replied. "I've already tried this... Pepsi, I think it's called."  
"Is that beer?"  
Liam marched over with his hands held out. Shay and Hope followed, both of them obviously curious.  
"That's the first thing you ask?" Leonardo said apprehensively.  
"I'm not sure. There's no effect." Adewalé gave him the cup and shrugged.  
"No way it's beer, then." Élise watched as Liam lifted the cup to his lips and sipped it.  
Instantly he turned and spat it out. "That's disgusting."  
"Is it bubbly?" Shay asked suddenly.  
They all fell quiet.  
"Did you really just ask that?" Hickey called from the bench. "The more bubbly the better."  
"Yeah. It's really bad." Liam held it out to the him. "Try it."  
Shay flinched and backed away, failing to hide behind Hope.  
"I get where the Irishman's coming from." Malik said pointedly.  
Leonardo tapped her leg. "Can I try?"  
"Quit scaring Shay and let Leonardo try it." Maria took the cup from Liam and gave it to the Italian.  
"I am not scared!" Shay protested.

***  
Hickey really wanted the drink Leonardo was trying- and failing- to drink. He eventually gave up and gave it to Élise, who tipped back her head and drained half the cup easily.  
"Please." She said, "You're wimps."  
"Oh, yeah?" Hickey challenged. He swiped the paper bag from Maria and took out its contents- what the hell? A piece of flat meat with vegetables, wedged between two pieces of bread?  
"I think I'm the only person hungry enough to say that looks good." Liam said.  
"You try it, then. I'm going for the drink." Hickey gave the food to the Irishman and took the cup from Élise, feeling a litle nervous. It wasn't beer. So what was it?  
"You're going to try it?" Malik asked.  
"Why not?" Élise challenged.  
"Well.... alchohol is disgusting and... and wrong."  
Four swallows later, Hickey was confident he had found the Holy Grail. He held it out to Shay. "Come on, who could be scared of this?"  
"I'm not scared." Came the gruff reply. Hope punched his arm.  
"I bet you can't do it."  
Baring his teeth, Shay snatched the cup from him and swallowed it quickly- too quickly- and his eyes widened as he doubled over and spat it out at his feet.  
"You drank it too fast, idiot." Hickey chided.  
For once, he was reprimanding someone.

***  
Shoa eventually got uo from where she'd been studying the horseless carriage and went over to see what the commotion was about. Liam was eating something that looked... well, kind of good, Hickey, Hope, Élise, Henry, and Adewalé were laughing, and Shay was apparently scarred for life.  
"You keep that away from me." He snapped, when Hickey tried to approach him again with the cup.  
She ignored this and went straight to Liam.  
"What is that?" She asked.  
"Adewalé said it's a burger." He offered it to her. "Really good, but it tastes different from normal food.... better, but in a bad way."  
"Alright..."  
Shao tried it, and was quite suprised. Wherever they were, they had good food. She gave it back to Liam and looked back at the sudden outbrust of laughter.  
Hickey had chased Shay halfway up the wall, where he clung, looking doen at the cup with wide eyes.  
Leonardo was pounding Hickey's knee. "Knock it off! People are staring and he looks fit to shit himself!"  
Shao snuck up behind Hickey- the others weren't doing anything about it, they were too busy laughing- and suddenly grabbed his arm.  
Hickey jumped and shrieked.  
"Give me the cup." She growled.  
He did as he was told while wimpering loudly.  
She tipped it over and dumped it out onto the ground, then handed him the empty cup. "You either drink it or tou throw it away. No need to go chasing people up walls."  
"Thank you." Shay called.  
"No problem."

***  
"So.... now what do we do?" Élise asked.  
Now that the commotion had stopped- Shao Jun had relieved Hickey of the Pepsi- they were all bored. Some of them were hungry, Élise included, because Liam had somehow managed to eat the burger undetected.  
Although, in his defense, no one had really cared at the time. They were too busy watching Shay climb up a wall in a panic.  
"Maybe we should get off the streets. Less people will think to look for us up there." Adewalé craned his neck and studied the buildings. "But it's a long way up."  
"Yeah." Henry agreed. He looked around. "It doesn't look like too many people care right now, though."  
"Maybe they sent out more people like Shay." Hope said.  
The Irish Templar shrugged. "Maybe."  
"What, you don't know?" Malik questioned.  
"Was I supposed to care? No one bothered to explain anything to me." He retorted.  
"You're just as alone as we are." Élise concluded, standing up. "Alright. We'll get to the rooftops. Maybe we can get some sleep before the sun comes up."  
The sky was already getting light.  
Time to climb.

***  
They found and alley and started scurrying up the wall like so many rats, doing fine until everyone started wondering why Malik was pacing the bottom of the wall and shouting at them that someone had better help him or he'd hamstrong them- then Henry started back down and helped the Assassin up the wall.  
Shay was craning his neck and focusing only on each handhold and foothold he could find. Once, he accidently used Leonardo's shoulder.  
If his strength flagged, all he had to do was imagine Hickey was below him, brandishing that cup of evil. It always sent some energy through his arms and legs.  
Shay found himself pausing, studying the wall. No more handholds, except for one at least eight feet.  
He sighed and pressed his feet together, bunching his muscles and finally jumping up, stretching his body and throwing his hands out for the handhold.  
He missed.  
Shay yowled as he was momentarily suspended in the air, until something snagged his arm and he slammed against the wall, his belly taking the brunt of it.  
"Real nice, Shay." Liam murmured. "Almost made me lose my balance."  
"Sorry," He gasped, scrabbling at the wall until he found a handhold.  
"Yeah."

***  
Malik was furious.  
Although his irration was cooling down, he was not alright with requiring help up the wall.  
"Do you have it?" Henry asked for the fifth time. He was reffering to whether or not Malik had a good grasp on the wall.  
"I'm. Fine." He growled threateningly.  
"Just asking." The Assassin mumbled. Malik clenched his teeth, cursing Altaïr. Then remembering Al Mualim's teachings about forgiveness.  
"Do you-"  
"Henry, if I didn't have it I would be nothing but a red smear on the ground. Yes! I do have it!"  
Henry started and almost slipped off the wall, but Malik stuck his foot out at the right moment and kept him from falling.  
"There, see?" He mumbled. "I have it."  
Henry righted himself, his face loosing its color. "Sorry...."  
"Let's just keep climbing."

***  
Leonardo wasn't the best climber.  
But he certainly wasn't the worst.  
At least if you compared him to Hickey, who clawed furiously at the wall, griping about how Haytham made it look easy.  
Ah, well, and Ezio could scurry up these walls like it was an art- which reminded him, he had seven unfinished paintings at home- not that it was.  
Well, technically all things were an art. Wars, food, writing, pranks. Especially pranks.  
He was only halfway up. Only.  
Ahead of him, he could see Adewalé, as well as Liam and Shay. And here it was almost funny; father up were Shao Jun and Élise. Hope and Maria were by far the highest up. Several feet away to his left, Malik and Henry climbed, slowly, breaking into occasional shouts over whether or not Malik 'had it'.  
He cringed as a bird flew past. They were making good progress, but his hands were scratched up and his shoulder hurt where Shay had used him as a foothold by accident. He'd gotten a gruff apology, but he was a Templar and Templars never fully apologized for anything.  
Or so Ezio said.  
Than again, Ezio had a knack for women and a blind devotion to the Assassins.  
Leonardo liked to maintain impartiality.

***  
Liam was inwardly a little suprised and more than a little happy he'd just saved Shay's arse. For the.... if he included bar fights and missed deadlines, the one hundred and twenty seventh time.  
As his friend climbed up beside him, that question he'd had the entire time since laying eyes on Shay sprang back into his mind.  
"So you survived?"  
Confusion and realization flickered in Shay's eyes before he nodded. "Yeah....."  
"How?"  
"Someone came along and fished me out of the water."  
"Who?"  
"Good people. No thanks to you."  
"Me....?"  
"You shot me, Liam. Don't think I won't forget that."  
He actually almost fell off the wall. "I shot you? No, no, no, that was Chevalier."  
"Does it matter?" Shay hissed.  
Alright. He had a point. Liam sighed and kept climbing, working alongside his friend in silence for a while.  
"So... what happened after?"  
Shay looked pained. "You don't know?"  
"No.....?"  
"Best you don't."  
"Why?"  
"Because what you don't know won't hurt you." Shay sounded choked.  
Liam decided not to push it.

***  
Hope was the first up onto the roof.  
She helped Maria up and watched the others continue climbing, then helping whoever made it up.  
Eventually, everyone was safely on both feet.  
"Holy shite." Henry shook his head and slapped his hands on his knees when he was on the rooftop. "That was difficult."  
"Tell me about it," Hickey wimpered. "My hands are all cut up."  
"We were climbing stone, what do you expect?" Shao Jun asked.  
Hope grinned at Liam and Shay, who had both made it up then promptly fell in a heap on the rooftop. "They have the right idea."  
"I want to sleep while I can." Liam said, from beneath Shay's arm.  
"Yes, but that looks uncomfortable." Malik observed.  
"You're uncomfortable." Shay called. The two Irishman snickered and Maria wenr over, untangled a squealing Shay from Liam, and kicked him in the belly.  
"Oh, great, I was gonna do that," Hickey grumbled.  
"Hey." Adewalé held out his arms, and to Hope's suprise, everyone went quiet. "We need a few people to stay awake while the others get some rest. We'll rotate out."  
"I'm not staying awake another minute." Liam declared. Half a minute later, he was sleeping soundly.  
"What is it with these people? Shay's asleep, too." Shao nudged Shay's foot, and he didn't respond.  
Hope whistled. "Well, you all stay awake and decide for yourself. I think we're safe up here."  
"Maybe. As long as they don't know how to fly." Élise said.  
Hickey gasped. "What if we get shat on by birds!?"

***  
Desmond flopped on the couch. He stood up, paced the room, then flopped on the couch again.  
His game had been interupted because of Abstergo's second major fuck up, and now he was here, waiting for his father, Shaun, and Rebecca to hurry up and get ready.  
"Come on." He groaned.  
"You come on!" Shaun called from upstairs. "Why don't you charge out therr with no backup from intelligent people, hmm? You'll only get as far as the British did in 1812."  
"What happened in 1812?" Desmond asked.  
A historical timeline book came flying down the stairs. "Read more!"  
"I'll just Google it."  
"Idiot."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Madness; Holy shite I forgot about Malik! You're right though, his arm poses a problem.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> missiur; He'll only recognize most things until someone says or does something that triggers a memory, or until he looks at something. Like how sometimes you may not be able to recall something until someone gives you a hint, that sort of thing. At some point it'll all come back.

The first person awake, of course, was Shay. He woke up with Liam and Hope one top of him, and he was on his back, facing the sky. Or trying to. Liam's arm was in the way.  
He gently pushed them off and peered at the sky. The sun had been up for only an hour; everything was still tinted blue. He looked around himself, at the Assassins and Templars sleeping on the roof, as if it was something they did every day. Adewalé slept on his back facing the sky, and a few feet away, Hickey slept, apparently having fallen asleep while wrestling with Henry. Maria and Malik were the closest together- not how close Liam, Hope, and Shay had been, which was actually really comfortable. Shao Jun were lying close to the center ornament (It looked wierd, a big box made of stuff that constantly seemed to hum, and for some reason he figured it was called an 'air conditioner', although the reason escaped him.) and Henry was a few feet away, curled up against it. Leonardo was on his belly, really close to the edge. He must have been studying the buildings and brightly colored signs. Oh, artists. Still, just to be safe, Shay gently moved the Italian closer to the middle of the roof. It would do no good for the world, scraping Leonardo Da Vinci off the ground.  
Shay put his hands on hips and whistled loudly, a signal for them to wake up. No one moved. He sighed and went around nudging people gently reminding them it was morning and they were several feet in the air. When that didn't work, he clambered on top of the 'air conditioner', cupped his hands around his mouth, and started singing every sea shanty he remembered.

***  
"Come along, come along, me jolly brave boys, there's plenty more grog in the jar-"  
Liam threw his boot at Shay, who yelped and ducked so it bounced harmlessly against Henry. Although judging by Henry's enraged curse, it was not harmless.  
"We get it!" He shouted.  
"Could've answered me, then." Shay grumbled, climbing off the big box thing he was standing on. "I've been singing for the last half hour."  
Beside him, Hope stirred. "Shay? Singing? For a half hour?"  
"Yeah." Leonardo rolled over and rubbed his eyes. "Hey, wait. I didn't fall asleep here."  
"It was that, or scrape you off the ground." Shay called. Liam scowled and pulled himself and Hope up.  
"Come on, then. Time to.... wait." He blinked and crossed his arms nervously. He didn't know what to do. Climb down, and they would be chased by Abstergo. Stay up top, and eventually arguments would break out, possibly sending a choice few (Namely Hickey and Shay.) over the edge of the roof.  
"What do you suggest we do?" He asked Adewalé. The Assassin lay gazing up at the sky, tracing the remaining stars with his eyes. He wondered what constellations he saw; he was a seafaring man, unlike Liam.  
"Climb down. Find someone we can trust." Was all he said.  
"But who can we trust?" Henry asked. "By now, they've probably set out rewards for us. Maybe we have bounty hunters on our trail."  
At the words 'bounty hunter' Shay cringed. Liam decided he'd ask him about it later.  
"Why don't we do what Ade said?" Leonardo suggested. "We could always climb back up."  
"No! I am not climbing another damn building!" Malik sputtered. "Do you know how hard that was?!"  
Henry rolled his eyes. "I do. I was the one helping you-"  
"Silence, fool." Malik growled. "You remind me of Altaïr."  
The name sent a visible wave of curiosity through everyone joined on the rooftop. Especially Liam. "What was he like?" He blurted.  
Shay suddenly drew himself up. "A bastard. Arrogant and cocky. But... alright."  
"And I suppose you know this because you lived during the Crusades?" Élise asked.  
"You were born in 1731- how do you know?" Hope said.  
"No, wait." Maria said thoughtfully. "Maybe he did. He just described him perfectly. Keep going, Shay."  
The Irishman looked confused. "Didn't laugh too often, but he found it funny to tease....." His eyes fixed on some point in the distance. "Us. He found it funny to tease us. He was usually quiet and was picky about insults. His hair was really short and his eyes were hazel."  
Liam felt apprehensive. Shay was doped up on something. Surely.

***  
"I doubt it." Élise pressed.  
Malik was still not convinced. "And how do you know all this? Tell us more."  
"He was snappy and rude but a good friend once you got to know him." Shay blinked. "And I don't know."  
"You have to." Malik continued. "Who told you this?"  
Maria nudged him arm. "I don't think anyone told him."  
The group was staring at Shay now, including Malik. The Irishman shifted his feet and looked down. "What?"  
"You knew this?" Liam asked.  
Malik looked at the Assassin. Liam was an admirable man. Well skilled, although he seemed to be a little competative.  
"No, I... I just don't know how. I just do." Shay sighed. "Can you all please peel your eyes off me? I feel like an exhibit."  
"Well." Hickey resumed the previous conversation. "What do we do now?"  
Henry grinned. "Now we climb back down."  
Malik felt thenight's embarrassment come back. No one looked down on him for his missing arm, but, still. He absolutely hated having someone help him up the wall.  
"No! I am not climbing back down that wall!"

***  
Shao Jun sighed and crossed her arms. "Malik, it's alright. We won't come back up."  
"Or will we?" Adewalé asked wryly. The Assassins and Templars snickered until she silenced them with an irritated growl.  
"What are you afraid of?" This was a trick that always worked.  
"Nothing! Malik Al-Sayf fears nothing!" The Assassin declared boldly.  
"Then, uh, I don't know, climb down and prove it." Hickey challenged. Élise thumped his arm.  
"As it happens, I agree. Just climb down and show us how unafraif you are." She said.  
Malik swallowed. "Um.... sure."  
Shao Jun watched him get up and walk to the edge of the roof and look down, clearly nervous. "I think I need help." He said after a while.  
She supressed the urge to laugh (Shay, Liam, Adewalé, and Hickey did not, and all four were silenced by punches from the others.) and started forward.  
"Coms on, once we get down there, food awaits."  
"And art! So much art!" Leonardo exclaimed.  
"Okay, I know you're Da Vinci and all, but a sign advertising beer is not an art." Hickey sighed. Leonardo marched over and smacked his arm. "Everything is art!"  
"I want some beer." Liam and Shay spoke at the same time.  
Shao Jun- satisified she had shaken their attention (Liam, Hickey and Shay were now arguing about what was better, whiskey or beer.)- started helping Malik down.  
They didn't realize they were gone until Adewalé interupted with how rum was really the best.

***  
Adewalé climbed down slowly, meticulously, ignoring the sudden squabble of Liam and Shay above him. Not fifty seconds ago he had said rum was the best and they were already at it again. This time it was about what time was better, morning or night.  
Well, he was currently a pirate, so it didn't really matter.  
He yelped and ducked to avoid Leonardo's sudden spasm as a bug apparently attacked him, then held out and arm and helped the artist regain his footing.  
"Jaysus, man, you could have warned me." He muttered.  
"Sorry. These bugs are bloody evil- here it comes again!"  
"Calma," Henry shouted.  
"You know Italian?" Came the hopeful reply.  
"No. Just that one word and 'cazzo'."  
"Do me a favor and never say that again."  
Adewalé shook his head and smiled. This group of Assassins and Templars was a lively one.  
Several feet away, Hope was quietly conversing with Maria, Hickey, Henry and Élise about the faces on the money. Who cared whose face was on the money? As long as it was money, it didn't matter.  
Unless it was really chocolate. That kind of candy, though rare, made Edward so angry it was funny.  
Reminded of the Jackdaw and her captain, Adewalé sighed. He missed the boisterous nights and cities already. Although he didn't care too much for Kingston. Too many plantations, too many soldiers.  
He was quiet until Liam and Shay's argument shifted to just how much alchohol and what kind should be consumed at what pat of the day. So specific (He had learned this after only a week at sea with the Jackdaw's crew.) he had to get involved in that one.

***  
Élise shrugged- almost losing her grip on the rough wall- and shook her head. "Benjamin Franklin.... I've met him once. When I was really little. Me and my father went to the Palace of Versailles where I met Arno, and...."  
Damn, she missed that little apple orchard-fence-hopping Assassin.  
"Arno? Arno Victor Dorian?" Henry asked. Sweat shone on he forehead as he worked his way down the wall. Élise felt a sense of curioisity whenever she looked at him. He represented the future- he knew almost every aspect of the Assassins' and Templars' lives before they themselves knew them.  
"Yes, him."  
"Who's Arno?" Hope asked.  
Élise pretended that didn't sting- Wait, Hope was from.... anytime before 1776. She hadn't even known they existed. She didn't live to see it. The Assassin Hunter had done what he did best.  
"Why?" Élise pressed. The Indian Assassin had her intrigued.  
"Nothing, just...." Henry's brow furrowed in concentration as he tried to manuever a windowsill that was too far to the right, and he suddenly disappeared from view with a shrill shriek.  
The shriek was followed by a loud, "Yes, thank you for catching me, Hickey, now you can let go."  
"Wait, what did you mean?" Élise continued.  
"I just had a thought.... it's nothing important- Hickey! Let go of my shirt collar!"  
"Sure you won't fall?" Came the tease.  
"Damn it, I'm about to unman you!"  
Élise rolled her eyes. Men and their seemingly pointless threatning to unman each other. The world would be a sad place if anyone actually thought to follow through with their threats.

***  
Hope waited for Liam and Shay- the highest ones up- to get to her level before continuing the climb down.  
"Resolve your argument abour alchohol?" She asked.  
"Yeah," Shay mumbled. "Adewalé won."  
"So niether of you could win."  
"Well, I was about to until Shay nearly fell, and I had to catch him-"  
"Hey!"  
"Sorry, Cormac, it's the truth and you know it."  
"Exactly what makes it hurt." Came the retort.  
Hope smiled. Those two were always getting into friendly, competely pointless arguments. And bets. Oh, the bets. Achilles once found both of them outside in a snowstorm, just trying to win the bet of who could stand out in the cold without a fire the longest. It took more than a week to convince both of them it was stupid idea (It eventually turned out to be another Assassin entirely who came up with it.).  
"What... what happened to you, Shay?" She suddenly asked.  
"What do you mean?"  
"You look... neater."  
"Um." Shay was quiet for a time. "Something."  
She growled through her teeth. Usually when he said 'something' it meant you weren't gettong an answer. "So you won't tell me why you changed your style entirely? I thought you hated black."  
"It serves a very good purpose for me." And that was truly the last thing he would say on the subject.  
Hope felt she would later find out why, and maybe it wasn't such a good thing.

***  
Maria climbed down the wall with Hickey in silence.  
Well, until he started hitting on her.  
"Om a scale of one to ten, how good looking do you think I am?" He asked suddenly.  
Maria was not going down this path again. In all honesty, she had eyes for Altaïr. Not this.... this apparent drunkard.  
Then again, he served a very useful foothold when there was nothing around, something he had only just discovered.  
When they finally reached a good distance from the ground, where Malik stood waving his arm and yelling at them to pick it up- Shay's frustrated response was rather vulgar and involved the use of the word 'fuck' at least three times.- she dropped down and stood by Shao Jun to watch them scale the last of the wall.  
"Who knew these historical figures were such asses." Shao Jun smiled in Malik's direction. The Assassin stopped yelling and actually stared at her with wide doe-eyes until Liam shouted 'look out below!' and used him as a landing pad. By accident, he said.  
"Eh. Only Hickey." Maria thumbed her nose at the Templar, whose only response was to curse until Élise finally slapped him. "But everyone else, I think I can live with."  
"Hey." Henry dropped down and met them with his hands on his knees. "I think Da Vinci might be stuck."

***  
Hickey groaned loudly to make his point. "Get down!"  
"It's not that far, Leonardo! You can handle it!" Adewalé shouted.  
By now everyone was down safely on the ground. Everyone save Leonardo Da Vinci, who hadn't had much experience with climbing yet and remained firmly against the wall ten feet in the air.  
"Come on!" Malik shouted. "Don't make me go up there!"  
"Not without your trusty helpers." Henry said. He and Shao Jun laughed until Malik threatened them with several Arabic curses.  
"Ezio would help me!" Leonardo cried.  
Shay rolled his eyes and held out his arms. "I'll catch you, then."  
"You will?"  
"Just jump on the count of five. One-"  
Leonardo must not have heard 'on the count of five'. He quite literally squashed the Templar before he was even remotely prepared.  
"Off... You're about to get puked on...." Shay moaned, gripping his belly.  
"I'm sorry!" Leonardo stood up and waved his arms. "Maybe if Ezio was here he'd have climbed up and helped me down."  
"I tried," Malik grumbled. "But I am lacking an arm due to one very arrogant man's actions."

***  
Leonardo scurried to the edge of the alley excitedly.  
"Calm yourself," Adewalé laughed. "We're about to see plenty of art."  
"I know, but it's just so beautiful. I am going to draw this!" He declared confidently.  
"Draw that?" Henry poked his head out and grinned at some unsuspecting passerby. Someine threw a rolled up newspaper at him and called him a weirdo. "You should see London. On second thought.... no. Draw this. London's too.... smoky."  
"Smoky?" Hope asked, coming up beside them to look out into the world. "What do you mean?"  
"Well, smoky, as in.... never mind." Henry shook his head sadly as though he figured he was surrounded by fools.  
"Maybe you mean machines?" Leonardo offered.  
"Yes. Machines, that's it. Trains and steamers. And factories. Lots of factories. You should meet the twins some day. They come home from a day's work with the Rooks and they're covered in soot."  
"The Rooks? As in the bird?" Leonardo questioned. He liked jackdaws better. No- nightingales. No, eagles. He loved birds in general. No, no, wait. Parrots. It had to be parrots.  
"I honestly don't know why they chose to call their syndicate Rooks. No one takes them seriously, until they reveal the brass knuckles."  
"Brass.... knuckles?" Leonardo was beginning to get invention ideas.

***  
Henry laughed. "Trust me, it's a long story."  
At the sound of a rough cough, he looked back to where Shay was, still holding his belly. "What exactly did you do?"  
"Well, his stomach took all my weight."  
"You couldn't aim for his outstretched arms?" Hope asked. Leonardo shrugged sheepishly, and they continued talking as Henry walked back to the others to try and make some sense of where to go next.  
"Shay, are you going to live?"  
"Yes. Maybe. No."  
"I need an answer."  
"Tell Liam and Hope I don't love them."  
Liam kicked his friend's arm gently. "Real nice, but we need your help."  
Shay lifted his head and nodded weakly. "Give me a minute to..." Then his eyes widened.  
"What? What happened?" Liam asked.  
Shay scrambled to his feet. "I- I think I know a man we can trust. His name is Desmond Miles."


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IcedFireFrenzy; Yep, the serum they drank is only enough to erase their memory for the time zone, so once he sees Desmond both their reactions will be pretty epic :)
> 
> I might add a few more from the previous story, or some brand new guys/ gals. Although I'm not sure who yet.

"Desmond?" Liam shook his head, refusing to believe Shay. "Shay, no one knows anyone here. This world, it's too..... I don't even know how to describe it."  
But, the way Adewalé and Henry were looking down at their feet, their arms folded, told him they believed the technically-dead Assassin. Or... Liam flicked his eyes back to Shay. Or was he dead?  
"You can't be serious." He blurted.  
Henry shrugged, and Adewalé lifted his head and nodded. "I believe Shay. As long as he can show us a drawing."  
Shay rolled his eyes and huffed, dropping to the ground and taking a rock, scratching something out against the pale stone. After about five minutes, he sat back and pointed at the image before him.  
"Okay, I don't want to be the one to burst your bubble, but Shay, I can't tell if that's a human or deformed pear." Henry chuckled.  
"Well, sorry if I don't have the hand of Leonardo Da V- Leonardo!"  
The artist turned around frim where he had been at the alley entrance and nodded. "What do you need, my friends?"  
"Think you can scratch out a basic image on the ground if Mr. Deformed Pear here can describe it?" Liam called. His friend delivered a kick to his knee, which he promptly ignored.  
"Si!" Leonardo trotted back to where Shay, was took one look at Shay's crude drawing, then sat down and waited for instruction.  
Liam groaned. They were going to be here forever if Leonardo made this out to be 'The Desmond Lisa'. Then again, Shay's vocal skills were far better than his drawing skills, so at least they'd have a more accurate image.

***  
Leonardo whistled while he drew out the image Shay explained to him, happy to be making art once again. Maybe, if he had the time, he could find some chalk and give it some color.  
"What are you drawing- damn." Maria peered over his shoulder and nodded, sounding impressed. "And then you compare it to that deformed pear-"  
"It's not a pear!" Shay shouted idignantly.  
"Then... can I ask what it is?" Hope asked. "Because whoever Leonardo's drawing is much better."  
Shay huffed and grumbled something under his breath, then told Leonardo the man he was drawing had a scar on his lip, and that was it.  
He sat back and studied his handiwork. The scratch-out was quite large; he knew that because Liam knelt next to it for size comparison. But, it looked like a real life person. "What color eyes, hair?" He asked.  
"Brown and brown." Shay replied.  
"Oh, great, that narrows our search." Hickey snapped. Malik swatted the back of his head.  
"No, he wore a white jacket with red trim and a black shirt underneath.... and a backpack. He wore a backpack."  
"Backpack?" Shao Jun asked. "Is that even a word?"

***  
Henry sighed. They didn't know what a backpack was? It was possible he was in trouble. But, then... He looked up at Shay's deformed pear, then back at Leonardo's work of art.  
And suddenly, he felt like a prank.  
"Sign it." He said.  
"Sign it?" Leonardo blinked, then grinned. "Why doesn't Shay sign his, too-"  
"No, just... please, no." Shay groaned.  
"Aw, someone's embarrassed about his deformed pear drawing." Malik teased. Shay swore at him, snatched the rock from Leonardo, then scrawled his name in big, blocky letters on the ground below his picture.  
"There, happy?"  
Henry pretended to be enthusiastic and nodded. "Much! Now, we need to find Desmond."  
"The problem is, where are we going to find him?" Élise asked.  
Everyone, including Henry, stared at Shay expectantly.  
"What?" The Irishman self-conciously rubbed the back of his neck.  
"Well, do you remember where you supposedly saw him?" Liam asked.  
"Uh... no."  
"Damn it." Shao Jun crossed her arms and looked out to the alley entrance. "Why don't we just leave this place? We can explore the area and maybe Shay will see something he remembers."  
"And I'm hungry!" Hickey shouted.  
Henry rolled his eyes and sighed. "Well, Liam ate the burger."  
"Only because nobody else asked me for any." Came the annoyed reply.

***  
Malik walked slowly down the pale grayish road, ignoring looks from others- it wasn't his fault Leonardo went hyper around 'Video Game Store (Whatever that was.) art' and had to be kept in place by someone grabbing his shirt color.  
"Hickey, quit your whining. We'll get food soon." Élise growled behind him. It was bad enough Malik had seen the drunk hit on Maria- and rhat was rule one of being brothers with Altaïr, you look out for each other and their girl- but now he whirled on him, nearly choking Leonardo in the process.  
"Shut up, damn you! We're a little distracted, because Shay's memory has become sentient."  
"Hey," The Irishman sounded a little hurt, and Liam comforted him by boxing his arm.  
"Well, I'm hungry." Hickey continued.  
"Here." Adewalé thrust a few of the green papers in Hickey's face. "Go buy yourself something, then."  
"Bring me back and apple." Shay called.  
"No, me!" Liam shouted louder, attracting weird looks from the people around them. Malik sighed, and would have palmed his forehead if Leonardo wasn't attempting to chase after a man on some sort of two-wheeled contraption, asking where he got it and why.

***  
Shao Jun watched Hickey amble into the nearest shop and then looked back at the others. "Should we let him go in there alone?"  
"Who cares, we got rid of him for a while." Élise said, exasperated.  
She shrugged and helped Malik tug Leonardo away frim the big road. "Who are you yelling at?"  
"Not yelling, asking." The Italian huffed, "See that man riding away? I'm trying to ask where he got that thing and why."  
"Well...." Shao Jun followed his gaze until she reached the man on the contraption. "That's a good question, why would you get it?"  
"Maybe if you had stopped him sooner, you would know by now, wouldn't you?" Malik asked dryly.  
She shot him a look. "Don't be so mean."  
"It's very difficult to be positive when you're missing an arm and using the remaining one to hold a hyper artist in place." He snapped.  
"Quit fighting!" Leonardo barked. "You're all being like Ezio, so determined to fight. Calm down sometime, and maybe you'll see more good. And just because you're missinf an arm doesn't mean you can't make the other stronger by holding hyper artists in place."  
Shao Jun looked at Malik and raised an eyebrow, nodding encouragingly. "You know," she said, "I think he's right."

***  
Maria waited patiently by Liam, Shay, and Hope (The three were apparently close friends and kept brusting into hushed laughter, although Shay was a little guarded.) with her eyes fixed on the door of the shop Hickey had gone into.  
"Think he got into any trouble?" Henry asked her.  
"Maybe... yes... no...." She shrugged. "Who cares? As long as we can eat because-" here she raised her voice- "Liam over there didn't share his burger."  
"Not my fault." Liam answered. Hope and Shay started laughing at him, until he threatened to knock Shay into the traffic of horeseless carriages.  
"There he is." Adewalé came up beside them and folded his arms, frowning. "I think all he bought was apples."  
"What makes you say- oh." Henry laughed as he saw the Templar walk toward them, waving a white bag that was almost see through.  
"I got a bunch of red ones, a few yellow, and one green." He shouted.  
Liam and Shay both looked at each other, then the bag, and flexed their fingers. "Green, you say? Just one?" Liam asked slowly.  
Not understanding what was about to happen, Hickey blinked and nodded. "Yeah. Just the one. They were almost out of green."  
Maria caught on before he did and she was already laughing by the time Liam and Shay had barreled past Henry and Adewalé, nearly squashing each other in the process.  
"It's my green apple!"  
"No, it's mine!"  
"Oh, my... you're making a scene!" Malik chided, releasing Leonardo. The artist watched the mini-squabble bewteen Liam and Shay contemplatingly.  
Eh. Maria was used to her male counterparts causing scenes.

***  
Hickey yowled and dropped the bag, scrambling back and watching the two Irishman argue about the green apple.  
Finally, seeming completely confident, Adewalé walked behind them, picked up the bag, discreetly slipped the one apple out, then went back to Henry and Maria and started eating it. Hickey snickered and waved the bag in Liam's face, pawing through the apples to get their attention. "Maybe you two aren't cut out to be Assassins at all."  
Shay scowled, and Liam crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. "Oh, yeah?"  
"Yeah."  
"Why do you say that?" Shay piped up.  
"Because, you're both too stupid."  
"Me? Stupid?" Liam growled.  
Élise shrugged. "Seems like it."  
"Would someone please tell me where this conversation is going?" Shay asked nervously.  
"Well." Adewalé finished the apple with one big, final bite and displayed the core to the Irishman. "It was a very delicious apple."

***  
Élise nodded. "I'm impressed. That took guts."  
"Guts are gross!" Leonardo declared.  
"No one asked you." Malik snapped.  
"Well, the redhead I'm not worried about-"  
"Ginger!" Liam sounded mildly offended, which made his voice go higher pitched and was rather funny.  
"- but the other one."  
Shay shrugged. "Can't blame him. I'm a very scary person."  
"Only when you want to be. You remind me of a bear cub." Élise said honestly. She remembered the boring lectures about 'Look at how Shay Cormac turned out' and 'Haytham Kenway's life took loyalty, loyalty you'll have to express one day, too.'  
"Bears aren't even my favorite animal." Shay replied.  
"What do I remind you of?" Liam piped up.  
"A fox." She laughed.  
Maybe... maybe Assassins didn't have to be Arno to be decent.

***  
Adewalé studied the horseless carriages passing by on the road, waiting for the others to finish their apples.  
"I don't even like apples," Malik muttered, "but I'm hungry enough that this is heaven."  
"More like hell. These yellow ones are gross." Shay moaned.  
Adewalé had to laugh. "You both could have worked something out."  
"But... but sir...." Liam shook his head and continued eating the yellow apple Hickey had given him. "I agree with Shay, these are gross."  
"Again, you're fault." Hope grinned and waved her red apple in his face, until he snatched it from her and ran around the others with it between his teeth.  
"Give that back!"  
"Mph!" Liam shouted back. Adewalé looked at Shay and smiled, nodding. The Irishman chuckled and stuck his foot out at the right moment, snagging Liam as he ran past.  
The two Assassins tumbled over each other and landed in a heap at Adewalé's feet.  
"Nice." Leonardo commented.  
"And Shay Cormac wins!" Shay laughed.  
"Damn it." Hope punched Shay's knee. "You ruined it. I was going to beat him up."  
"So mean." Shao Jun grinned.  
Adewalé crossed his arms and smiled. He liked this group.

***  
Hope stole her apple back from Liam and finished it, ignoring the rest of the world in exchange for laughter and jokes from the Irishmen.  
They were a team ofmthree again. No, not three. Eleven, with the others around.... or... No. Just Liam, Shay, and Hope, for now. Even if Shay was a little too guarded, compared to what he used to be.  
"Hey." Henry suddenly clapped his hands in front of them in the middle of a bout of laughter (Liam had said something about a fat person walking by, and even though it was rude, they found it funny.). "Listen to me."  
"What?" She asked.  
"We need Shay again."  
"I told you, I don't remember where I saw him." Shay growled.  
"That's the thing. Adewalé and I just want to ask you some questions about it."  
"Maybe if we hit him on the head," Malik suggested. Shao Jun swatted his arm.  
"Oh, sure, because a hammer will do just the trick." Shay rolled his eyes and stood up. "Ask away."

***  
"Do you remember anyone else?" Adewalé asked.  
Shay shrugged. Yeah, he did. One guy who was rather mean with graying hair. Another guy who had glasses and was a real know-it-all. Then that girl who wore an orange and green hat.... Rebecca. He remembered her name because she wore the colors of his nation.  
"Okay, so what do they look like?" Henry pressed. Shay described each of them, refraining from giving them Rebecca's name because it would lead to more questions about the other two. "Do you know if anyone else was there with you?"  
Oh, shit. "The G- My Mentor. Ezio, Ziio, Anne-"  
"Wait, did you just say Anne?" Adewalé asked.  
"Ezio?" Henry squeaked.  
Shay rolled his eyes, and was about to elaberate when he saw someone he recognized.

***  
All he wanted was a pit stop for some Sour Patch Kids and a cream soda, and his dad actually let him.  
He did not expect to be walking out of the QuikTrip to hear a loud, Irish accented, "Desmooooond!!!"  
He definately did not expect to be almost flattened against the wall by Shay Cormac.  
"What the- hey, are those-"  
"Have I been here before? Please tell me you don't have any Pepsi-"  
"Um......" Desmind opened his mouth, then trailed off as he caught sight of several other recognizable Assassins and Templars from history trotted up. "Why don't you follow me back to the car and explain some things for me?"


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IcedFireFrenzy; XD  
> Acsister; They'd loose their minds over Internet buffering :)

Adewalé was not convinced in the least.  
While everyone else rushed ahead to follow Shay's lead- he wondered if he should tell Liam and Hope there was something off about the Irishman. Something... Templar-ish.- he lagged behind and nibbled another apple, watching the new man who still looked stunned. Leonardo had a definite knack for drawing people- he looked exactly like the rough scratch out on the ground.  
"... Just come to the car, Shay." Desmond was saying.  
"The car! That's what they're called!" Shay was practically shouting. Adewalé guessed if he had a tail, it would have been wagging so hard his rear would shake. "Is everyone else there? Altaïr and Edward and Jacob-"  
"Whoa." Desmond shook his head. "Sorry, buddy. Looks like you're the only one."  
The excitement vanished. "Oh."  
"You mean to tell me," Henry said slowly, "You've been here with Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, Edward Kenway, and.... Jacob?"  
"Jacob Frye." Shay nodded vigorously and started following Desmond as he walked to the... car? What was car?  
Henry rolled his eyes. "It can't be the same.... Oh, for God's sake, what'd he look like?"  
"Well, he was here with his sister and really liked short hair-"  
"It's only logical; it's too hot for long hair." Malik cut in.  
Adewalé slowly started after them, still skeptic. Should he trust Desmond and Shay?  
Well, it looked like he'd have to. Liam and Hope were going and there was something about the two he liked.

***  
Malik was still wondering what exactly this 'Jacob Frye' look like when he saw the car (He was the first one to lay eyes on it, after Shay, who perked up tenfold.) he almost fainted.  
So large- and with no horses to pull it!  
Hm.  
He could get used to this world.

***  
No.  
No.  
And no.  
Jacob had never even.... never given any indication of seeing something so new. So futuristic.  
Henry officially did not believe a word that came out of Shay's mouth after that. After all, he was a Templar.  
Again, he was made uncomfortably aware of how Liam and Hope did not seem to know. That, or they didn't care.  
Desmond continued walking until he reached a blue... was this what a car was?.... and then stopped, waving at the three people inside.  
Well, at least, he thought he saw three. It was difficult to tell because Shay appeared to have plastered himself on the window, shouting, "Rebecca! William! Shaun!"  
So..... now Shay knew the names of them? He had previously denied any knowledge of names. Henry would have to continue the issue. Instead, he fell back to the only other voice of reason among the group. "Do you trust them, Adewalé?"  
"I don't fully trust you, but they are even more suspicous." Adewalé replied. "Let's stay with them for now. I rather like Liam and Hope and I think we should make sure nothing happens to them."  
"And Hickey?"  
"Let's focus on the respectful ones first."

***  
Shao Jun had kept her opinion to herself before, content to observe where the situation was going. But now...  
"This is suspicious." She said. Desmond gave her a sideways look.  
"Don't trust him?"  
"Not the Irishman. You."  
"I'm an Assassin, though. Hidden Blades to prove it back home. See in there, climbing out of the car? That's my dad, William. He's the Mentor. And then the British dude with glasses is Shaun, and that's Rebecca."  
"You're father is Mentor?" She asked.  
"Well, yeah." He said. "Has been for a while- we're going to his house after this, which-"  
"Can I have some candy?" Shay asked, coming up and looking with wide brown eyes at the 'Sour Patch Kids' in Desmond's hand.  
"When we get in the car. Help me get everyone else in, and I'll give you half."  
"Really?"  
"Really."  
Shao Jun watched him go, then sighed. "I don't fully trust you. But.... I'll come."

***  
Maria had no idea why Shay was suddenly hovering around her, excitedly motioning to the car-thing while she was talking to Leonardo about art on the wall. Art in bright letters that spelled some rather choice words.  
"Get out of here or I'm going to smack you." She finally sighed. "And I'll do it, too."  
"Come on, then." He pressed.  
She finally rolled her eyes and grasped Leonardo's hand, pulling him into the car-thing. Or, as Henry called it, a horesless carriage. Henry was already there with Adewalé, Hickey, Hope and Liam, exploring the inside of the car.  
"What are you five doing?" She asked.  
"Do you think we're going to go fast like the other horseless carriages?" Liam's eyes were round with fear. Hope put a hand on his shoulder.  
"Not too fast, maybe."  
"I want to go fast!" Leonardo quipped. "Just imagine, like a bird!"  
Malik, Élise, and Shao Jun climbed in, grinning over some joke between each other. Meanwhile, Shay had disappeared, and so had the people that had peviously been inside the car-thing.  
Maria groaned as someone dug their elbow into her side on accident- Liam and Hickey had just started a wrestling match.  
This was going to be a while.

***  
They eventually all settled down and sat across from each other in the car, all glaring at Shay, who had clambered in at some point with a handful of candy in his pockets, whistling.  
"What's that you got there?" Adewalé asked, as Shay situated himself next to Élise. She wondered if she could stealthily sneak some candy from him.  
"Something." Shay replied, although his smile betrayed it.  
"I'll ask again, what's in your pockets, Shay?"  
"Nothing-"  
"Candy," Élise grinned at him. "Can I have some?"  
"Well- wait." Shay tilted his head and watched as Desmond and his friends clambered into the front. "I don't think you'd want anything to eat right now."  
"Of course I do." Sneaking candy was an old tradition of Arno's and her's.  
"No, we're about to start moving."  
"Moving?" Liam squeaked, burying his face in his arms.  
Élise sighed. What a wimp, at least when it came to- what had Desmond called them?- cars. "I think the effect is similar to carriages. You're moving fast, but no wind hits you."  
"Brilliant!" Leonardo squealed with delight. "A real masterpiece!"  
Élise wondered who had painted this 'masterpiece' of machinery. For some reason, a random name floated into her mind. Ford.  
Although she couldn't figure out why.

***  
Hickey rolled his eyes for the fifth time. "Stop sounding so scared!"  
"Uh, actually, he has every reason to be. More car crashes happen, then-"  
Desmond smacked the back of the man named Shaun's head and shushed the following angry outburst by stuffing candy in his mouth.  
"Okay, so, I think I can trust you guys to keep calm, but we're going to move." The woman- Rebecca- turned and looked at them through the seats.  
Liam moaned loudly and Shay chucked a piece of candy at him.  
Wait, candy?!  
"Give me some!" Hickey barked, holding out his hand.  
The Irishman growled and shook his head. "You're not even my friend."  
"What? But aren't we both-"  
Shay threw an entire handful at him, his eyes wide with panic. "Fine, fine, here, just shut up."  
"What about the rest of us?" Élise asked.  
"Yeah." Malik growled.  
Shay sighed, then looked at what remained in his pockets. "Might as well take it all, then."  
Hickey laughed. Had Shay known he was about to say 'Templars'? Probably.

***  
Hope was perfectly fine comforting Liam, until the car-thing lurched.  
"Hope....." Liam said against his elbow.  
"Calm down already. What a wimp." She teased gently.  
"We're moving!!!" Leonardo shouted.  
"He's not helping." Liam groaned. "What's Shay doing?"  
"Um. Eating candy."  
"Tell him to give me some."  
"This is impossible. Comepletely insane." Malik was muttering, his arms folded tightly across his chest. Shao Jun was trying to comfort him.  
"Hey, guys, we're only a few minutes from the house. And, I think we're going to the store tomorrow anyway. So... get used to it, I guess." Shaun called.  
Hope punched the back of his seat. "You aren't helping either!"  
"Tough love." He replied.

***  
Shay was perfectly comfortable. Everything was reminiscent of the time before, when he had been in this car with the others. Now that the memory had been triggered, it was coming back in incredible chunks. Images of the Grandmaster beating Jacob Frye with his hat. Connor then trying to beat the Grandmaster. Edward and Jacob fighting. One particular time when Edward stole Jacob's hat and started beating him with it, just like Haytham.  
Speaking of which, Haytham had fallen out of a tree, but the memory ended there. Maybe if he saw the tree.....?  
Liam groaned again and Shay kicked his foot gently. "Come on, it's not that bad."  
"Tell me when we've stopped."  
"Well... I guess. But why don't you look up? Look around."  
"And find myself looking at Hickey's ugly face? No thank you."  
"Right back at you, redhead." Hickey sneered.  
"It's ginger!"  
"It's red." Hope observed.  
"I thought you were on my side!"  
Shay smiled. He had missed them- although, he was on the opposing side... But he still had a long way to go before becoming an official Templar. A few more months with Monro, he reckoned.  
But for now he had his candy and his friends.

***  
Liam was about to give up his apple to the floor and Shay's feet when the car-thing suddenly stopped.  
"Out of my way!" He nearly flattened Élise and Maria in the process of opening the door and falling onto the ground.  
Malik was right after him. "Finally!!!"  
He rolled onto his back and laughed, staring at the sky. "Damn."  
"When can we move again?" Leonardo was asking. "Tomorrow?" He gasped. "What about tonight?!"  
"Too much." Henry groaned. "Wait till tomorrow."  
Shay nearly barreled over everyone else, and was the first into the big house ahead of them. He flung open the door and waited for a moment, grinning with excitement.  
"I'm sorry, Shay, but I told you; No one's here." Desmond called.  
His friend's face fell. "Aw."  
Liam pulled himself to his feet. "What about us? Me and Hope?"  
"Who cares if there's others, I want to see the inside of this house myself." Hope declared. "Liam, are you coming?"  
"Yeah, yeah- Wait for us, Shay!"

***  
Leonardo went inside after the other three, glad William had withheld the others for a brief 'rundown of the rules'.  
The house was big and open, with a black square pushed against the wall on a wooden table. Upstairs, he heard Shay, Liam, and Hope talking about something to do with a 'computer' and a game called 'Slenderman'. Okay. Whatever that was.  
He made his way into what he thought to be the kitchen, and halted in the doorway. Everything looked to be made of glass and/or metal. Everything was sleek and shiny and polished and-  
What was that big silver box?  
He grinned mischievously to himself.

***  
Desmond stood with his dad while he explained the rules.  
"Can't we just go inside already! You can trust us, man." Adewalé said.  
"What's in there that we could break? Jewelry? Glass? Art?" Maria narrowed her eyes. "Or a Piece of Eden?"  
Maybe it wasn't wise to tell them he had the Apple hidden in his backpack.  
"No Pieces of Eden." Desmond said quickly. "Can they break?"  
"Well, a certain someone proved they could cause earthquakes." Henry said thoughtfully, looking at the house.  
"No, look.... never mind." William pinched the bridge of his nose. "Shaun, Rebecca?"  
"Yeah." The two answered.  
"Make sure they don't break anything."  
"Will do." Shaun promised.


	12. Chapter 12

"Now, you guys can go inside-"  
Maria didn't wait for William to finish his rules. She sprang to her feet and shot like a bolt through the door, curiosity practically controlling her movements.  
Once inside, she froze and felt the other Assassins and Templars, eager as well, pile up behind her.  
"Move!" Hickey shouted.  
"What the hell." Adewalé said it like a sentence and looked around himself. "This is bizarre."  
Maria nodded. "I know- wait, where'd the others go?"  
"Up here!" Liam shouted. "Shay's showing us a game!"  
Élise craned her neck to peer up the stairs. "What kind of game?"  
"Slenderman!" Hope yelled.  
Maria shrugged and started up the steps, leaving the others to mill around and explore the downstairs level.  
After lots of searching and a few shouts, she found the room they were in. Shay stood bent over some sort of.... had to be a Relic of Eden.... Liam and Hope beside him. It appeared Shay was guiding someone around a forest with a lantern.  
"What is-"  
"A computer." Shay said. He grinned and beckoned to her with one hand. "Come see."  
"Ooookay." Maria walked over to him and peered over his shoulder. "What are you-"  
The computer flashed, and the screen-thing filled with static. Shay gave no reaction whatsoever, although Hope, Liam and Maria all screamed and shot away from the game- Maria would later realize that Liam screamed the loudest, and the girliest.  
Meanwhile, while they were shouting, Shay started laughing so hard he sat down on the bed and clutched his stomach.  
After the panic died away, they crossed their arms and begrudgingly stared at the Irishman, who was still- amazingly- laughing.  
"What?" Liam growled. "You, Shay, are an asshole."  
Shay fell off the bed and landed with a thump on the floor. Maria kicked him in the side.  
"Liam's right, you are an asshole!"

***  
Leonardo opened the big metal-ish box and grinned. Not only was there a miniature sun (He decided to start calling them light bulbs, on account of their odd shape.) but there was food!  
"Anyone hungry?" He called. Henry poked his head in.  
"I am- and wait, what's that?"  
"Not sure. Think I'll call it a fridginator!"  
"Fridginator?" Henry laughed. "I think it's actually called an icebox."  
"Henry."  
"What?"  
"It's a fridginator."  
"Oh, for- what's in it, anyway?"  
"Hm. Apples, whipped cream- that looks delicious- and....."  
"Hey! That's not for you guys!" Desmond rushed in, holding up his hands.  
"But... but-" Leonardo was incredibly hungry.  
"Aw, hell... fine, tell me what you'd like and I'll make it for you."  
"Really?" Henry asked.  
"Why not?"

***  
Hickey did not understand what the hell this big, black square was, or why it was on top of a pedestal.  
He studied it from above, below, from the side, and could not deduce what it was used for.  
Well, until Desmond rushed into the house to go to the kitchen, and stopped to say, "That's a T.V."  
Well, T.V. did not really clear things up.  
"How does it work?"  
But Desmond was already gone, talking to Leonardo and Henry.  
"Maybe you have to press something?" Élise suggested.  
Malik waved his hand. "What if we punch it?"  
"No one's punching anything. Why don't we ask someone- how about Shay?" Adewalé said.  
"Maybe. Shay!" Shao Jun called.  
After a moment, Shay responded. "Uh, yeah?"  
"Come help us with the T.V, since you know it all."  
"Um- only a certain someone I know can do that."  
"Who?" He asked.  
No reply.

***  
Adewalé looked at Hickey and shrugged. "I suppose you're not learning what that T.V. does."  
"Oh, hell, no." Hickey growled. He started marching up the stairs, ignoring looks from everyone else. "Shay!"  
"Um... should we stop him?" Malik asked.  
"No, let him go." Shao Jun said. "Shay didn't answer his question; he probably deserves whatever's coming."  
"Brutal." Adewalé laughed. He watched Hickey reached the top of the stairs and then looked toward the kitchen. "I smell food."  
"Eggs? No, wait..." Élise tilted her head. "I can't place that."  
"Smells like something my mother would make." Malik added.  
"Desmond? What are you making?" Adewalé called.  
"Um- some food? Anyone else hungry besides Henry and Leonardo? 'Cause I got us something to eat-"  
"Yes, please!" Malik was the first into the kitchen.  
Adewalé waited until everyone else had gone, then got up, walked over to the T.V., and put his suspicion into motion, by pressing the buttons on the side of the wierd device.  
The T.V. sprang to life- no, literally, it scared the shit out of him- and he jumped back, watching the images and motions flicker across the screen, emitting sound.  
What. The. Hell.

***  
"Hey, um... I think I got it to work!" Adewalé shouted into the kitchen.  
Henry turned away from the stove- Desmond said he was making Ravioli, although he wondered why it came in an odd can-like contraption- and looked into the living room. "You did?"  
The Assassin nodded. "I think it works like Edward's observatory- maybe this lets us see into other people's lives."  
"What are you guys-" Élise's question was cut off when Henry gently pushed her back.  
"If this T.V. thing is an artefact of Eden, we can't let it fall into Templar hands. Sorry-"  
And, suddenly, Henry felt himself be shoved against the wall, his hands pulled behind his back. Then someone unbuckled his belt, pulled it off, tied his hands together with it, and then spun him around so he was facing the others, who stared at him openmouthed.  
Élise dusted her hands off, grinning. "Now. What's this about a T.V?"  
"How the hell did you do that?" Leonardo asked.  
"Well, you men think you're all that." Shao Jun said. She and Élise laughed. "All we have to do is use your confidence against you."  
"Remind me never to piss you off." Desmond muttered.

***  
Malik snorted and rolled his eyes. "Come on. What person would ever be afraid of a-"  
He didn't even get to finish his answer before Élise and Shao Jun were upon him.  
"Do continue, this is getting fun." Élise laughed.  
Malik groaned. "Alright, alright. I apologize for my insolent behavior." "You had better," Shao snapped. "Men are far too demeaning."  
"You'd be suprise how much it's changed." Desmond said from the stove.  
"What?" Malik asked.  
"Never mind." Came the reply. After a bout of silence, Desmond spoke again. "Think I'll show you guys Call of Duty."  
"What's that?" Leonardo asked.

***  
Shao Jun smiled and made her way into the living room, ignoring Henry's outraged pleas for someone to help him.  
"Malik- Malik, you'll untie me, right?"  
"It's your belt." The Assassin replied. "Don't look at me."  
"Come on, someone help me!"  
"You did it to yourself, by being rude!" Shao called. She looked at the T.V. and shook her head. "What the hell?"  
"That's what I thought." Adewalé said. "Anyone here have the faintest idea what Teletubbies are?"  
"Maybe. It sounds childish." Malik didn't tear his gaze away from the 'Teletubbies'. ".... And a little odd. But interesting nonetheless."  
"Hello? Desmond?" Henry groaned, trying to tug his hands apart.  
Shao Jun rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine, I'm coming. Don't get yourself in a twist."  
"Malik, I don't understand how you find this interesting." Élise said. "I mean, come on. It's clearly for children."  
"Wait, wait, wait. I just had a thought... what if this is what the rest of the world looks like?!" Malik squeaked.  
Shao ignored them and un-belted Henry's hands, with a firm warning that next time he said anything about Templars, she would personally relieve him of his manhood.

***  
Élise was still trying to make sense of why Malik found Teletubbies interesting when Hickey appeared at the top of the stairs, holding Shay (Quite an odd image, as Shay was a fair bit bigger than Hickey.) by the ear.  
"Are you going to answer me next time?"  
"Yes." The Irishman grunted. "Now let go of my ear or I'll cut off your-"  
"No need to go that far. Hickey, let him go. Look, we got it to work." Élise motioned to the T.V. "Do you know what Teletubbies are?"  
"I do!" Shay straightened up and sprinted down the stairs so fast Hickey was dragged with him, yelping his head off.  
"No way." Adewalé deadpanned.  
"I'd believe him, guys. He's been here before. Ask anyone." Desmond's voice wafted from the kitchen and Shay swung his head around.  
"Is that food I smell?"  
"Oh, great, let me open another can." Came the reply.  
"Yes. No. Maybe." Élise said. "But- you know what this is?"  
The Irishman nodded vigorously. "Yes. I saw them last time. Where's the remote?"  
"It had a remote? I want a T.V. in my house!" Leonardo quipped.  
Élise sighed, wondering what life would be like if Leonardo Da Vinci had owned a T.V.

***  
Liam eventually got up- Hope, Maria and him had been laughing for quite a while even after Hickey barged in, grabbed Shay up off the floor by his ear, then barged out.- and went downstairs, the smell of food causing his stomach to growl.  
He froze at the bottom of the stairs, staring at the big black square. Well, it had once been black. Now it was filled with all sorts of colors, and moving paintings (What?!?) and sounds. Sounds were a big one.  
Liam turned his head this way and that trying to make sense of it. "What the-"  
"Teletubbies!" Shay proclaimed. "Although it seems to be for kids." He frowned and waved a hand in front of Malik's face- the Assassin was staring at the T.V. and grinning. "And for Maliks. Definately for Maliks."  
"Yes, but... never mind. What's that I'm smelling?"  
"Something." Leonardo said.  
"It's food." Shay answered. "I think it is, at least. Desmond didn't make this last time."  
"Yeah, because you people's stomachs are bottomless pits!" Desmond shouted from the kitchen. "I mean, really. How many meals do you need in a day?"  
"Four, isn't it?" Adewalé asked. "Unless you're on a ship. Then it's two or three."  
Liam shrugged. "Does it matter? What's he making?"  
"Italian food. At least, it sounded Italian." Leonardo said.  
"Yeah." Desmond called.  
Liam felt his stomach rumble and decided not to question it.

***  
Hope pulled herself up from the floor, then helped Maria up.  
"Smell that?" Maria asked her.  
"Food- It smells like something Achilles would make."  
"Achilles? The hero?"  
"No..." Hope remembered Maria had technically been born around the 1100's. She had no idea who Achilles was unless it was the legend. "He's my Mentor. A good man, but he... chased someone dear to me and Liam practically off a cliff."  
Although he seemed dead-set on killing himself anyway... Hope added mentally. She noted with a pang of joy that her friend had just been pulled out of the room by his ear. Alive, breathing, and occasionally choking on his own laughter.  
They made their way to the top of the stairs and looked at the scene below them. The others were all around the weird black box she had seen earlier....  
"Maria?" She asked slowly.  
"I see it. Is that a Piece of Eden?!"  
"No!" Hickey shouted up. "It's a T.V.! No sorcery involved- just electricity, according to Henry."  
"If you could see some of the stuff they're making in the nineteenth century...." Henry shook his head and looked up. "You two can join us if you like... well, not the Templar." He flinched when Élise brandished a pillow threateningly at him. "Alright, alright! The Templar can join us, too."  
"Much better." Maria muttered.  
Hope smiled.

***  
Shay grinned and sat cross-legged on the floor, motioning for Hope to come sit near him.  
For a while, they were content to sit that way, watching the Teletubbies and bursting into laughter at how childish the whole ordeal was.  
And he was happy, too, something he hadn't been in... well, forever.  
"Can I ask you again what happened?"  
He shrugged. "I-I really can't tell you."  
"Why not? Liam and I won't judge."  
"Yeah." Liam sat down on the couch next to Adewalé. Shay noted he still looked at the Assassin with a level of reverence.  
"Well-" Hickey began. Shay felt his arms and legs spur into motion, and in seconds he had pulled Hickey into a headlock, his hand clapped tightly over his mouth.  
"And that is why you make a good Assassin." Liam quipped.  
Shay felt his stomach turn at the motion of being compared to one of... them.... but he didn't show it. He wanted Liam and Hope to be... there. As the friends they used to be. 

***  
Desmond waited by the stove, about to rip his ears off.  
He hated Teletubbies.  
But yet, there were the friends of his ancestors in the next room, with the volume turned up high.  
Just the sound of it was creepy to him.  
And it wasn't the kid factor of it- it was the general creepiness Arno had pointed out a few weeks ago.  
The thought of Arno made Desmond feel like something was missing around the house. The thought of any of his ancestors did, now. And the Animus was no help- every time he got in that thing, he expected someone to recognize him, or someone to knock something over and blame the Templars (Cough cough, Jacob.).  
But now he had the others to deal with, and besides, at least Shay was back.  
He sighed and turned on his phone, looking at his screensaver, the picture of his ancestors all together.  
Maybe he'd give them a whirl at Call of Duty.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IcedFireFrenzy; XD  
> Acsister; Thanks for telling me! (Still used to writing Evie.) Yep, Shay's afraid of Liam and Hope's reactions to his Templar- ness. Or Templar-ism. If those are words. And I can see Desmond losing to the lady Assassins ;)

Shao Jun was still trying to comprehend why Malik was suddenly so interested with Teletubbes when Desmond called Maria, Élise, Hope and her into the kitchen.  
After shooing a curious Adewalé out of the room Desmond displayed a small silver thing that looked like it could be a dart, with a keychain attached to one end.  
"This,"'he said, smirking, "is a laser pointer. I'll show you how to use it in a second, but I found this on the counter and I got an idea."  
"What's the idea?" Hope asked suspiciously.  
"Okay, so, you press this button and a little light comes out. See?" Desmond waved it around, and a little dot appeared at the counter. Insantly all of them were trying to snatch the dot off the weird granite. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. See, you can't grab it."  
"Where are you going with this?" Shao Jun was getting a general idea of what his plan was.  
"Alright. I want you guys to go to the top of the stairs and keep it hidden from them. Then, shine the laser pointer and see if they go for it, like you guys did." He handed it to Shao Jun.  
"This should be interested." Élise said. She started for the door, and the others followed.  
"Not just interesting. We can prove our superiority once again." Hope laughed. "Wait till they see that light."  
Shao Jun crept past the male Assassins- Malik was attempting to attack Shay and prevent him from 'changing the channel'- and motioned to the others, grinning.  
They made it to the top of the stairs before Leonardo asked, "Where are you going?"  
Some of these fellows were too curious for their own good.

***  
"Nowhere concerning you." Élise said. She liked giving these kinds of answers to Arno. Something about the way his eyes widened and his lower lip pushed out- on purpose, no doubt- was humorous. That, and, he was an Assassin.  
"Hope." Liam said.  
"We're going to the computer." She replied.  
"Can I come?" Henry asked. Élise shook her head.  
"Are you going to be rude about Templars?"  
Henry's brow knit. "It's perfectly natural and- yes."  
"You're not coming anywhere." She grinned and ushered the others up the stairs. "See you later."  
Once out of view, Shao Jun inched forward on her belly until she reached the top of the stairs again and beckoned to them with one hand. "Ready?"  
"When you are." Élise replied.  
"Don't let them see you, especially Malik. Altaïr tells me he has very good vision." Maria whispered.  
Élise would never get used to someone talking about Altaïr like he was alive and breathing. Then again.... She looked back down at the Assassins and Templar- now arguing and wrestling over the remote, which Shay was defending valiantly- and smiled. Why talk about people who were dead when they were really alive and squabbling before your eyes?

***  
Hickey was about to pounce on Leonardo- for no apparent reason other than that the initial argument over whether or not the Teletubbies was worth watching went south, and the whole thing erupted into a free-for-all.- when he saw it.  
A little red.... bug, he assumed, landed dead-center on Shay's chest.  
Instantly the fighting ceased and everyone stared at the Irishman with wide eyes. Save Liam, who was preparing himself to jump from a crouching position.  
"What? Why's everyone staring at me?" Shay asked.  
"Look down." Adewalé instructed.  
Shay did, and his eyes widened. "What the hell is-"  
"Hang on. Let me try and kill it, Shay, on the count of three." Liam said.  
"Liam, wait-"  
"Three!" Hickey yelled, and lunged forward and tackled Shay, pawing at his chest. He held up both hands- straddling the other man- cupped together and grinned. "I caught it!"  
"Let me see." Malik pried his fingers apart and then swatted Hickey's head. "You novice. There's nothing in your hand."  
"Novice?! Who are you calling a novice?! At least I'm not missing an arm!"  
"Get him, Malik!" Leonardo laughed.  
Shay started thrashing beneath Hickey. "No, wait! Not while I'm right under him-"

***  
Lima was just about to sit back and enjoy the view of his friend getting squashed under a Templar and an Assassin when the red-dot-bug-thing appeared again, this time on Adewalé's foot.  
"Um." Was all the Assassin said. "Nobody move."  
Even Malik and Hickey had stopped fighting, coming to rest on top of Shay, still flattened beneath them.  
Before his very eyes, the dot began to move, crawling along the floor- and still they stared, practically shaking with the restrained will to jump forward and catch it in between their hands. It reached Liam and came to rest on his knee.  
"Aw, shite." He grunted. "Let's see where it goes-"  
Then a Hickey-sized blur came bearing down on him.  
"Damn it, Thomas!" Liam shouted, oushing him off. "Look, now it's gone!"  
Leonardo riased a hand. "It's on me, isn't it?"  
Slowly everyone looked at him.  
"Yeah, don't move, we'll try and kill it this time." Shay said, sitting up and cringing.  
"Aw, someone got hit in the manhood." Hickey snickered. Liam boxed his arm.  
"Quit that. Now."  
Hickey jeered at him, and Liam felt a surge of anger for the Templar. "Damn it, don't make me beat you."  
"Take it from a two-armed person." Malik grumbled under his breath.  
"Oh, what are you on about-" Liam began. He was cut off when Shay suddenly jumped on Leonardo, swatting at his forehead with the remote.  
Leonardo shrieked and ducked, and the remote swiped empty air.  
"Hold still, so I can kill it!" Shay shouted.

***  
They finally couldn't take it anymore and collasped into a fit of giggles, dropping the laser.  
Maria was the first one to recover and crept to the top of the stairs, looking down. Instead of killing each other like they had been moments ago, everyone was looking around for the red dot.  
"Where'd it go?" Adewalé asked. "Maybe a rolled up paper will do the job."  
"Or a charging horse." Hickey suggested.  
"You're both wrong. It's this!" Shay brandished the remote at the others. "I almost had it but Leonardo moved."  
Maria wanted to say that if Leonardo hadn't moved, Shay would have smashed the remote and his skull, and the 'bug' would still be alive.  
Meanwhile, behind her, the others were slowly quieting down and creeping uo beside her to see their reactions.  
"No, seriously, what if it's on someone's back?" Henry asked.  
Leonard gasped. "What if it is?"  
Maria grinned and picked up the laser pointer, aiming it right in the middle of the circle the Assassins and Templar had formed.  
"There!" Malik scried, and they all dove for it.  
There was a crack as their heads met, and everyone reeled back, yowling in pain.  
"Idiots." Élise snickered. Maria nodded.  
"I agree with you, that was a dumb move."  
"How long do you think we can keep this up?"  
"As long as we have to for them to understand that they're idiots."

***  
Malik drew back from the group and groaned, clutching his head.  
"Did we-did we kill it?" muttered, holding his head.  
"I think so. Check for a dead red dot on the floor." Leonardo eased himself onto his back. "That hurt like hell."  
"No shit." Henry snapped. "Is it dead?"  
Liam's eyes widened and he swung his head around, cringing. Malik supressed a laugh. "No, it's- no, we didn't kill it!"  
"Oh, fuck. That thing's coming for us." Shay whispered.  
"Don't panic yet. We'll kill it before it kills us." Malik said firmly. "Now, did anyone see where it went?"  
He suddenly realized everyone was staring at him.  
"What? What happened? Is it.. is it on me?!"  
"Calma, calma, we'll deal with it." Leonardo reassured him. "Just don't move."  
Malik looked down at his chest and nodded slowly. "Alright, alright, alright, I'm- I'm calma- ing."  
"Calma- ing?" The artist looked confused.  
"Never mind." Malik rolled his eyes. "Someone deal with it already!"  
Adewalé puffed his chest and came froward, then slowly reached at Malik's chest. With a shout of victory, he slammed his palm forward and caught it in his hand.  
Or so they thought.  
The dot jiggled a little, but remained stubbornly where it had been, now on Adewalé's hand instead of Malik's chest.  
"Does this mean....?" Henry began with wide eyes.  
"It's unkillable!" Liam cried. "It's coming to haunt us forever!"

***  
Henry dove behind the couch. "Scatter yourselves! It can only attack one of us!"  
Soon everyone had taken cover and peered up from behind a piece of furniture. Henry flicked his eyes left and right, wondering what the twins would think. Well, the twins didn't exactly matter right now, seeing as they were both not even twenty-five and each liked to drink excessively.  
"Now what?" Adewalé asked.  
Henry shrugged. In the books, he remembered reading that Edward's words for the Quartermaster were 'a man of action'.  
"Maybe we paint." Leonardo suggested.  
"No." Malik snapped. "We're not painting anything. Get that silly idea out of your head."  
Leonardo actually stepped out from behind the potted plant in the corner and drew himself up. "Excuse me?! Do you know who you're talking to?!"  
Henry wanted to nod and shout 'Yes! Leonardo Da Vinci! Painter of....' and prattle on all the painting he knew the Italian had created.  
But as it was he feared they would be found by the red dot again.  
"Get down!" Hickey hissed. "It's gonna see you!"  
"Listen to the Templar." Shay growled. "Now."  
Liam threw a pillow across the room at Shay from behind the easy chair. "Never let me hear you support a Templar. Ever."  
"Knock it off." Adewalé chided. "Not all Templars are bad. Some stand for good reasons and genuinely believe they're helping the world."  
Maybe it was just Henry, but Shay's eyes were glassy for a while after Liam's reprimading.

***  
Hope flicked on the red dot down the chair, hovering around Liam and grinning.  
It took him a while, but when he noticed, his reaction was awsome.  
Liam shrieked and completely spasmed, scuttling away from the chair and practically bodozing over Shay.  
"Hey, what-" Shay's eyes widened and he yelped, backing away.  
Beside her, the others collapsed into giggles as Liam and Shay were chased into a corner by the dot, which she eased forward slowly.  
"What's going on over there?" Hickey asked.  
"The evil red dot! It's back!" Liam howled, crawling up onto Shay's shoulders. "Come on, Cormac, make your own luck and make it go away."  
"I make my- oh, you said it already. And I have no idea how to make it go away." Shay moaned, inching up as far against the wall as he could. "We need a plan of action. Can you help us?" He asked the others.  
Hope almost burst out laughing then and there, and slowly allowed the laser up Shay's leg, heading for his chest. Liam screamed, and it seemed to harden some sort of resolve in Shay.  
"That's it, I'm done with this thing's shit."  
He launched himself off the wall- Liam left in a heap on the floor- and stood up, looking around the room, the table beside him. Hope grinned and trailed the laser along there, watching his eyes widen and his head wobble as he tried to follow its path. Then he slapped his hand in front of it, swore when that didn't work, and did it again. Then again, his palms slapping the table repeatedly, and in all directions.  
The similarities were so close to that of a cat chasing a fly the two Assassins and two Templars erupted into full-blown laughter.

***  
Adewalé crept out from behind the plant where he had been hiding with Leomardo and watched Shay practically attack the table with his hands, then the wall, slamming his palms against it.  
"Is he dead yet?" Hickey asked.  
Malik emerged from his cover and rolled his eyes. "No, obviously not."  
Shay swiped at the wall and jumped. "Damn it, it's too far up."  
"I'd help you with that but I value my life." Leonardo said uncertainly.  
Adewalé sighed. "After the laughter we just heard? I think I know who's the culprit. Hope! Shao Jun! Élise! Maria!"  
The Assassins and Templars came stumbling down the stairs, Hope still holding a tiny silver thing. The red dot was all over the wall now, and Shay was right behind it (Ignoring his surroundings.) still set on grabbing it.  
"What is this madness?! You were doing it the whole time?!" Henry asked, his voice taking on the high tones of someone offended. "And yet you let us run around like headless chickens?"  
"I just got a painting idea!" Leonardo declared.

***  
That red dot was fast, he'd give it that.  
For some reason there was laughter and Liam was currently berating Hope (He was too angry with this red dot to care much.) but he ignored it all.  
Instead, Shay darted around the room, following the dot. When it was on the floor, he stamped his feet- once, he almost had a perfect dive, but he hit his head on the floor.- and when it was on the wall he was on it, too, clambering on top of things and at some point, on top of Malik.  
By now he was pretty sure the fucking thing was on the run, because he almost caught it.  
Almost, because it vanished just as his hands closed around it above the T.V.  
"And that's the end of that." Hope said, laughing. "You were chasing that thing for quite a while, Shay. Talk about passion."  
"It pissed me off." He mumbled. "And where'd it go? What was that thing?"  
"It didn't go anywhere, see?" She showed him the silver thing. "It's a laser pointer."  
"Laser...pointer?"  
"I'll tell you later. Long story."

***  
Leonardo wasn't really annoyed that the reason for their fear was a tiny silver thing you were supposed to wave around.  
In fact, he thought it was pretty funny.  
Well, funny as in watching Shay run around like an excited cat, frantically scrabbling after that little red dot.  
"How did you manage to go undetected so long, anyway?" Adewalé asked.  
Élise grinned. "Easy."  
"You're not going to explain?" Liam asked.  
"Well, two of us are Assassins, and two of us are highly-skilled Templars-" Hope's explanation was cut off by Liam's exasperated sigh.  
"Enough with this 'respecting Templars' bullshite. Aren't they our enemies?"  
Leonardo shook his head. "It doesn't matter much, does it? Are you going around assassinating people right now? Are the Templars going around Templar-ating everyone right? No."  
"One thing." Shay raised a hand.  
Leonardo nodded to him.  
"What is Templar-ating, and is it a word?"

***  
Desmond couldn't leave the stove, but judging by the shouts, girly screams, and cursing coming from the next room he could take a pretty good guess at what had happened. It had taken everything he had not to burst out laughing, but just for this, the ladies were all getting extra food. Better yet, he'd buy them all ice cream.  
But, what he was not so humored by was the sound of someone climbing on things and, for lack of a better word, zipping around in the living room. Someone must have had the balls to chase the thing.  
Desmond looked at his phone and grinned. Yeah, as soon as they were done eating, he'd teach them Call of Duty.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IcedFireFrenzy; XD  
> Acsister; Thanks for telling me! (Still used to writing Evie.) Yep, Shay's afraid of Liam and Hope's reactions to his Templar- ness. Or Templar-ism. If those are words. And I can see Desmond losing to the lady Assassins ;)
> 
> Guess something happened where Chapter 13 is the same, but I'll leave it as is.

Shao Jun was still trying to comprehend why Malik was suddenly so interested with Teletubbes when Desmond called Maria, Élise, Hope and her into the kitchen.  
After shooing a curious Adewalé out of the room Desmond displayed a small silver thing that looked like it could be a dart, with a keychain attached to one end.  
"This,"'he said, smirking, "is a laser pointer. I'll show you how to use it in a second, but I found this on the counter and I got an idea."  
"What's the idea?" Hope asked suspiciously.  
"Okay, so, you press this button and a little light comes out. See?" Desmond waved it around, and a little dot appeared at the counter. Insantly all of them were trying to snatch the dot off the weird granite. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. See, you can't grab it."  
"Where are you going with this?" Shao Jun was getting a general idea of what his plan was.  
"Alright. I want you guys to go to the top of the stairs and keep it hidden from them. Then, shine the laser pointer and see if they go for it, like you guys did." He handed it to Shao Jun.  
"This should be interested." Élise said. She started for the door, and the others followed.  
"Not just interesting. We can prove our superiority once again." Hope laughed. "Wait till they see that light."  
Shao Jun crept past the male Assassins- Malik was attempting to attack Shay and prevent him from 'changing the channel'- and motioned to the others, grinning.  
They made it to the top of the stairs before Leonardo asked, "Where are you going?"  
Some of these fellows were too curious for their own good.

***  
"Nowhere concerning you." Élise said. She liked giving these kinds of answers to Arno. Something about the way his eyes widened and his lower lip pushed out- on purpose, no doubt- was humorous. That, and, he was an Assassin.  
"Hope." Liam said.  
"We're going to the computer." She replied.  
"Can I come?" Henry asked. Élise shook her head.  
"Are you going to be rude about Templars?"  
Henry's brow knit. "It's perfectly natural and- yes."  
"You're not coming anywhere." She grinned and ushered the others up the stairs. "See you later."  
Once out of view, Shao Jun inched forward on her belly until she reached the top of the stairs again and beckoned to them with one hand. "Ready?"  
"When you are." Élise replied.  
"Don't let them see you, especially Malik. Altaïr tells me he has very good vision." Maria whispered.  
Élise would never get used to someone talking about Altaïr like he was alive and breathing. Then again.... She looked back down at the Assassins and Templar- now arguing and wrestling over the remote, which Shay was defending valiantly- and smiled. Why talk about people who were dead when they were really alive and squabbling before your eyes?

***  
Hickey was about to pounce on Leonardo- for no apparent reason other than that the initial argument over whether or not the Teletubbies was worth watching went south, and the whole thing erupted into a free-for-all.- when he saw it.  
A little red.... bug, he assumed, landed dead-center on Shay's chest.  
Instantly the fighting ceased and everyone stared at the Irishman with wide eyes. Save Liam, who was preparing himself to jump from a crouching position.  
"What? Why's everyone staring at me?" Shay asked.  
"Look down." Adewalé instructed.  
Shay did, and his eyes widened. "What the hell is-"  
"Hang on. Let me try and kill it, Shay, on the count of three." Liam said.  
"Liam, wait-"  
"Three!" Hickey yelled, and lunged forward and tackled Shay, pawing at his chest. He held up both hands- straddling the other man- cupped together and grinned. "I caught it!"  
"Let me see." Malik pried his fingers apart and then swatted Hickey's head. "You novice. There's nothing in your hand."  
"Novice?! Who are you calling a novice?! At least I'm not missing an arm!"  
"Get him, Malik!" Leonardo laughed.  
Shay started thrashing beneath Hickey. "No, wait! Not while I'm right under him-"

***  
Lima was just about to sit back and enjoy the view of his friend getting squashed under a Templar and an Assassin when the red-dot-bug-thing appeared again, this time on Adewalé's foot.  
"Um." Was all the Assassin said. "Nobody move."  
Even Malik and Hickey had stopped fighting, coming to rest on top of Shay, still flattened beneath them.  
Before his very eyes, the dot began to move, crawling along the floor- and still they stared, practically shaking with the restrained will to jump forward and catch it in between their hands. It reached Liam and came to rest on his knee.  
"Aw, shite." He grunted. "Let's see where it goes-"  
Then a Hickey-sized blur came bearing down on him.  
"Damn it, Thomas!" Liam shouted, pushing him off. "Look, now it's gone!"  
Leonardo raised a hand. "It's on me, isn't it?"  
Slowly everyone looked at him.  
"Yeah, don't move, we'll try and kill it this time." Shay said, sitting up and cringing.  
"Aw, someone got hit in the manhood." Hickey snickered. Liam boxed his arm.  
"Quit that. Now."  
Hickey jeered at him, and Liam felt a surge of anger for the Templar. "Damn it, don't make me beat you."  
"Take it from a two-armed person." Malik grumbled under his breath.  
"Oh, what are you on about-" Liam began. He was cut off when Shay suddenly jumped on Leonardo, swatting at his forehead with the remote.  
Leonardo shrieked and ducked, and the remote swiped empty air.  
"Hold still, so I can kill it!" Shay shouted.

***  
They finally couldn't take it anymore and collasped into a fit of giggles, dropping the laser.  
Maria was the first one to recover and crept to the top of the stairs, looking down. Instead of killing each other like they had been moments ago, everyone was looking around for the red dot.  
"Where'd it go?" Adewalé asked. "Maybe a rolled up paper will do the job."  
"Or a charging horse." Hickey suggested.  
"You're both wrong. It's this!" Shay brandished the remote at the others. "I almost had it but Leonardo moved."  
Maria wanted to say that if Leonardo hadn't moved, Shay would have smashed the remote and his skull, and the 'bug' would still be alive.  
Meanwhile, behind her, the others were slowly quieting down and creeping up beside her to see their reactions.  
"No, seriously, what if it's on someone's back?" Henry asked.  
Leonard gasped. "What if it is?"  
Maria grinned and picked up the laser pointer, aiming it right in the middle of the circle the Assassins and Templar had formed.  
"There!" Malik scried, and they all dove for it.  
There was a crack as their heads met, and everyone reeled back, yowling in pain.  
"Idiots." Élise snickered. Maria nodded.  
"I agree with you, that was a dumb move."  
"How long do you think we can keep this up?"  
"As long as we have to for them to understand that they're idiots."

***  
Malik drew back from the group and groaned, clutching his head.  
"Did we-did we kill it?" He muttered, holding his head.  
"I think so. Check for a dead red dot on the floor." Leonardo eased himself onto his back. "That hurt like hell."  
"No shit." Henry snapped. "Is it dead?"  
Liam's eyes widened and he swung his head around, cringing. Malik supressed a laugh. "No, it's- no, we didn't kill it!"  
"Oh, fuck. That thing's coming for us." Shay whispered.  
"Don't panic yet. We'll kill it before it kills us." Malik said firmly. "Now, did anyone see where it went?"  
He suddenly realized everyone was staring at him.  
"What? What happened? Is it.. is it on me?!"  
"Calma, calma, we'll deal with it." Leonardo reassured him. "Just don't move."  
Malik looked down at his chest and nodded slowly. "Alright, alright, alright, I'm- I'm calma- ing."  
"Calma- ing?" The artist looked confused.  
"Never mind." Malik rolled his eyes. "Someone deal with it already!"  
Adewalé puffed his chest and came froward, then slowly reached to Malik. With a shout of victory, he slammed his palm forward and caught it in his hand.  
Or so they thought.  
The dot jiggled a little, but remained stubbornly where it had been, now on Adewalé's hand instead of Malik's chest.  
"Does this mean....?" Henry began with wide eyes.  
"It's unkillable!" Liam cried. "It's coming to haunt us forever!"

***  
Henry dove behind the couch. "Scatter yourselves! It can only attack one of us!"  
Soon everyone had taken cover and peered up from behind a piece of furniture. Henry flicked his eyes left and right, wondering what the twins would think. Well, the twins didn't exactly matter right now, seeing as they were both not even twenty-five and each liked to drink excessively.  
"Now what?" Adewalé asked.  
Henry shrugged. In the books, he remembered reading that Edward's words for the Quartermaster were 'a man of action'.  
"Maybe we paint." Leonardo suggested.  
"No." Malik snapped. "We're not painting anything. Get that silly idea out of your head."  
Leonardo actually stepped out from behind the potted plant in the corner and drew himself up. "Excuse me?! Do you know who you're talking to?!"  
Henry wanted to nod and shout 'Yes! Leonardo Da Vinci! Painter of....' and prattle on all the painting he knew the Italian had created.  
But as it was he feared they would be found by the red dot again.  
"Get down!" Hickey hissed. "It's gonna see you!"  
"Listen to the Templar." Shay growled. "Now."  
Liam threw a pillow across the room at Shay from behind the easy chair. "Never let me hear you support a Templar. Ever."  
"Knock it off." Adewalé chided. "Not all Templars are bad. Some stand for good reasons and genuinely believe they're helping the world."  
Maybe it was just Henry, but Shay's eyes were glassy for a while after Liam's reprimading.

***  
Hope flicked on the red dot down the chair, hovering around Liam and grinning.  
It took him a while, but when he noticed, his reaction was awsome.  
Liam shrieked and completely spasmed, scuttling away from the chair and practically bodozing over Shay.  
"Hey, what-" Shay's eyes widened and he yelped, backing away.  
Beside her, the others collapsed into giggles as Liam and Shay were chased into a corner by the dot, which she eased forward slowly.  
"What's going on over there?" Hickey asked.  
"The evil red dot! It's back!" Liam howled, crawling up onto Shay's shoulders. "Come on, Cormac, make your own luck and make it go away."  
"I make my- oh, you said it already. And I have no idea how to make it go away." Shay moaned, inching up as far against the wall as he could. "We need a plan of action. Can you help us?" He asked the others.  
Hope almost burst out laughing then and there, and slowly allowed the laser up Shay's leg, heading for his chest. Liam screamed, and it seemed to harden some sort of resolve in Shay.  
"That's it, I'm done with this thing's shit."  
He launched himself off the wall- Liam left in a heap on the floor- and stood up, looking around the room, the table beside him. Hope grinned and trailed the laser along there, watching his eyes widen and his head wobble as he tried to follow its path. Then he slapped his hand in front of it, swore when that didn't work, and did it again. Then again, his palms slapping the table repeatedly, and in all directions.  
The similarities were so close to that of a cat chasing a fly the two Assassins and two Templars erupted into full-blown laughter.

***  
Adewalé crept out from behind the plant where he had been hiding with Leomardo and watched Shay practically attack the table with his hands, then the wall, slamming his palms against it.  
"Is he dead yet?" Hickey asked.  
Malik emerged from his cover and rolled his eyes. "No, obviously not."  
Shay swiped at the wall and jumped. "Damn it, it's too far up."  
"I'd help you with that but I value my life." Leonardo said uncertainly.  
Adewalé sighed. "After the laughter we just heard? I think I know who's the culprit. Hope! Shao Jun! Élise! Maria!"  
The Assassins and Templars came stumbling down the stairs, Hope still holding a tiny silver thing. The red dot was all over the wall now, and Shay was right behind it (Ignoring his surroundings.) still set on grabbing it.  
"What is this madness?! You were doing it the whole time?!" Henry asked, his voice taking on the high tones of someone offended. "And yet you let us run around like headless chickens?"  
"I just got a painting idea!" Leonardo declared.

***  
That red dot was fast, he'd give it that.  
For some reason there was laughter and Liam was currently berating Hope, who seemed a little distracted and kept looking at Shay, so he tried his best to impress her with his awsomeness (He was too angry with this red dot to care much.) but for the most part he tried to block it out.  
Instead, Shay darted around the room, following the dot. When it was on the floor, he stamped his feet- once, he almost had a perfect dive, but he hit his head on the carpet.- and when it was on the wall he was on it, too, clambering on top of things and at some point, on top of Malik.  
By now he was pretty sure the fucking thing was on the run, because he almost caught it.  
Almost, because it vanished just as his hands closed around it above the T.V.  
"And that's the end of that." Hope said, laughing. "You were chasing that thing for quite a while, Shay. Talk about passion."  
"It pissed me off." He mumbled. "And where'd it go? What was that thing?"  
"It didn't go anywhere, see?" She showed him the silver thing. "It's a laser pointer."  
"Laser...pointer?"  
"I'll tell you later. Long story."

***  
Leonardo wasn't really annoyed that the reason for their fear was a tiny silver thing you were supposed to wave around.  
In fact, he thought it was pretty funny.  
Well, funny as in watching Shay run around like an excited cat, frantically scrabbling after that little red dot.  
"How did you manage to go undetected so long, anyway?" Adewalé asked.  
Élise grinned. "Easy."  
"You're not going to explain?" Liam asked.  
"Well, two of us are Assassins, and two of us are highly-skilled Templars-" Hope's explanation was cut off by Liam's exasperated sigh.  
"Enough with this 'respecting Templars' bullshite. Aren't they our enemies?"  
Leonardo shook his head. "It doesn't matter much, does it? Are you going around assassinating people right now? Are the Templars going around Templar-ating everyone right? No."  
"One thing." Shay raised a hand.  
Leonardo nodded to him.  
"What is Templar-ating, and is it a word?"

***  
Desmond couldn't leave the stove, but judging by the shouts, girly screams, and cursing coming from the next room he could take a pretty good guess at what had happened. It had taken everything he had not to burst out laughing, but just for this, the ladies were all getting extra food. Better yet, he'd buy them all ice cream.  
But, what he was not so humored by was the sound of someone climbing on things and, for lack of a better word, zipping around in the living room. Someone must have had the balls to chase the thing.  
Desmond looked at his phone and grinned. Yeah, as soon as they were done eating, he'd teach them Call of Duty.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IcedFireFrenzy; I know quite a few people who have a freakout when someone attempts to change the channel, myself included. Malik's overall curtness really shows it :)  
> Shothroughtheheart; I'm glad you and Frenzy enjoyed! :D  
> Acsister; Yep, wonder how they'll react to that fast-paced, testosterone driven game xD

A few minutes before;  
Shaun, Rebecca, and William, having been upstairs for the most part, stopped gazing with hatred at the Abstergo ad on the YouTube video they were watching when laughter erupted from the top of the stairs.  
"You know what, I've got a theory." Shaun said. "Desmond found my laser pointer."  
"Just be glad he didn't bust that thing out when Haytham was here." Rebecca laughed. "Or Altaïr! You know what that guy would have done?"  
"I wonder if the men have found out it's the ladies' fault-" William was cut off when Liam started screaming downstairs, and yelling at Shay to make his own luck and get rid of it.  
"I'd hate to be the ladies then." Shaun snickered. Rebecca punched his arm.

***  
Malik sat trying to eat his food.  
But that was becoming increasingly difficult with this little white fork that just had to bend whenever he attempted to impale his Ravioli. And it didn't help that Liam was still mad at Hope.  
"I can't believe you would do something like that to me." He growled over the table. Hope didn't hear him. She was doing something with the laser pointer, turning it on.  
Malik rolled his eyes. "Of course she would. We've found ourselves the rudest women in the world."  
Shao Jun looked up at him. "Shut up."  
"Why should I-"  
"Shut. Up." She went on casually. "Because if you don't, this fork will find its way to your throat."  
Malik shrugged. The only person who had ever intimated him was his father and Altaïr. But, Altaïr was a Class- A asshat.... sometimes.  
The red dot appeared near the edge of the oak table, and although everybody else seemed to understand it was Hope's doing, Shay lunged over and clapped both hands down on the wood. Malik sighed. There was always that one idiot.

***  
Hickey was having lots of fun stabbing his foot to death- Adewalé had given up convincing him it was already dead, but Hickey swore it had moved- when Desmond approached. "Everyone done eating?"  
"I am!" Leonardo declared cheerfully. "What do we do now?"  
"Well." Desmond grinned and held up a couple of weirdly shaped black things with buttons on them. X, Y, A, B. What?  
"What are those?" Henry shoved Shay off himself. "Hope, for fuck's sake, put the laser light away! He's jumping on everything!"  
"Aw." Hope pressed the button, and the red dot disappeared. Shay immediately looked confused and swung his head around.  
"Where'd it go?"  
Hickey laughed and leered at the Irishman. "Moron. Hope pressed the button and it went away."  
"Who are you calling a moron? You're the idiot who-"  
"Guys. Call of Duty. You can kill people." Desmond said.  
Faster than anyone could say 'Nothing is True,' everyone was gone from the table.  
"Where is this 'Call of Duty' you speak of?" Adewalé called from the living room.

***  
Henry watched Desmond explain the XBox to them, then reached out and picked up one of the remotes. "What's this?"  
Someone had scrawled, in big black letters, 'Altaïr Ibn- La'Ahad'. Beneath it was the same name, in Arabic.  
"Holy shit, I can't believe I didn't notice that- what is up with Altaïr and signing his name on things, anyway? He did the same thing to the orange juice." Desmond said.  
"Hey." Henry reached over and took another another remote. "This one just says 'the Rooks'. And Aveline, and Arno...." The Rooks?  
No, it couldn't be his Rooks. Could it?  
"Arno?" Élise asked quietly.  
"You're kidding." Desmond took the remote and studied it, then the others. "Ziio, Ezio, Mary.... Shay, were you in on this last time?"  
"No." The Irishmam said meekly.  
"You're a horrible liar. You wrote your name, too. But someone crossed it out and put Shamrock."  
"Only 'cause the Gr- because Hay- because Kenway did!"  
Hickey burst out laughing. "That's the most-"  
Henry felt annoyance surged through himself and slapped him. "Shut up! Some of the shit you did was worse than anything Shay ever did."  
"What did you do, Shay?" Hope asked warily.  
"Nothing. I did nothing." Shay snapped.  
"When did you guys do this?" Desmond asked, looking at each of the four remotes. "What the...?"  
"The last night when we were all down here. Remember? Evie found a permanent marker. You didn't show us the XBox that time. Well, Edward said you did, but somewhere else.... we didn't know it'd stick around."  
"Wow." Desmond shook his head. "That's really cool. I mean, hard to see, but really cool."  
"Now how do you play this Call of Duty?" Shao Jun asked. "It looks interesting."  
"Yeah, yeah." Desmond nodded. "Hey, Leonardo, I got some Minecraft here if you want to play after them. Might be better for your innocence."  
Henry's head was too filled with suspicion to even ask what Minecraft was

***  
Adewalé was the first to get a remote.  
"Ready?" Desmond asked. "Here, see, this is your first match. Ready?"  
"Maybe. How do you shoot again?"  
"Right here." Desmond showed him, then backed away. "Attack!"  
Well, maybe. Adewalé ran in circles at firet, but quickly got his bearings, although someone started sputtering curse words that would have made Edward choke when he killed them. Or tried to. Turned out, the guy was on his team.  
"This looks intense." Liam whispered with awe.  
"I want to try!" Maria exclaimed.  
"Here, take it." Adewalé swore at the game and gave her the remote. "I am not too familiar with the term 'noob', but I assure everyone in that game that is 'noob'."  
"Well." Was all Desmond said. He grinned at Adewalé. "You hit the nail on the head there."

***  
Maria, was, what Desmond called, beasting this game. She killed every member of the enemy team without dying, doubled back, killed every member again, ran into the top player, killed him, then shot down a flying bird.  
"We won!" She laughed, putting down the remote. "See! Look!"  
Desmond gaped at the screen. "What the hell.... no way. Uh-uh. That's the top of the lobby...."  
"Here." Maria grinned and gave it to Hickey. "Haytham, whoever he is, won't be helping you."  
"For the Templar Order!" Hickey yowled. "Because Templars are the best and so are our tenets and- Wait. Why is my name 'Assassin'? This is madness!"  
"No, Hickey." Desmond snickered. "This is Call of Duty."

***  
After Hickey went on- involving lots of cursing and such rude gestures Shao Jun and Malik set upon him with pillows- Liam took the remote.  
He ran around the map with this incredibly fast gun, shooting whatever moved. No, really. He 'emptied all the ammo he had into a fuckin' bush', according to Desmond.  
"Stop swearing." Leonardo snapped. "You're sounding like Ezio when he fails to woo a girl."  
"Ezio?" Shao Jun asked. "But Ezio is.... Ezio's so old."  
Leonardo frowned. "What? He's just out of his teens. And oh, mio dio, so many girls. If I see one more ragazza I swear-"  
"God feckin' damn it!" Liam roared, tossing the remote aside. "If I die one more time I'll eat the off someone!" He had died more than ten times now, with no kills. It was getting to be so annoying. More annoying than when someone accused him of being a drunkard just because he was Irish.  
"Did you just say 'fecking'?" Desmond asked. "Did you really?"  
"Yes, I did. Now shut up before I punch you." Liam growled. "I'm done. Someone else take that remote."

***  
The remote was unfamiliar to Shao Jun, but she managed to manuever it with the speed and accuracy Ezio had when he wielded a knife, despite being old. In the first game, she got more than 20 kills and just one death, in the beginning. Someone started calling her a hacker. Whatever that was.  
"This is bullshit. How are you guys doing this?" Desmond demanded. "I've been playing for four years and I haven't reached that skill level."  
"Well, maybe if you tried more...." Shao knifed someone and laughed as a random killstreak appeared. Something called a M.O.A.B.  
"Oh, fuck. Mother of all Bombs?!" Desmond choked out. "What- no. I demand a a personal match. You and me. Each of you women. Templar, or Assassin."  
"You expect to get far with us?" Élise asked. The match ended with several people cursing at Shao Jun for being a hacker. She smiled and gave Élise a remote. "My friend, we will...what's the term? Kick your ass."  
"My team won, I expect yours to do the same... despite you're being a Templar, I wish you luck-"  
"I make my own-" Liam smothered Shay's face with a pillow.

***  
Élise effortlessly used her superfast gun- something called a UMP45- to successfully kill everyone on the enemy team three times. It averaged out to sixteen kills, two deaths, and a coupke of assists. Well, technically not sixteen kills. She had over twenty by the time the match ended, as the top player had fallen to her gun seven times more than anyone else.  
"You just killed the top player ten times...." Desmond blinked and rubbed his eyes. "What the fuck? Hope, I want to go against you-"  
"What about me?" Shay asked. "Can I try?"  
Élise still wondered if Shay had told Liam and Hope. He was probably too busy with the red dot, which Hope had taken out again and now trailed across the floor, snickering at his pawing at the carpet.  
"Yeah, sure you can, Shay, and- Shay? Hello? You know what, I'll just take that thing away." Desmond said.  
"No, wait." Shay jumped and slapped his hands on the red dot. "Got it! What the-?! Where the hell did it go?"  
"Idiot says what?" Hickey said.  
"What?" Shay asked.  
Élise smiled. She used to pull that all the time with Arno, and he always fell for it.

***  
Shay got the remote and sat down in front of the XBox, determind to trump Élise, Shao, and Maria's score.  
Well.  
He got the exact reverse of Shao's score. 26 deaths, 1 kill- and that was accidental, involving him, a rocket launcher, and a care package.  
Shay threw the remote down. "I give up. This feckin' game's-"  
"There it is again! Does it really take you guys getting mad in order to say 'fecking'?" Desmond asked.  
"Fecking? Is sounds like someone drunk tried to say....." Henry frowned and shook his head. "Damn."  
"Well, anyway. I want to see Desmond against Hope." He said eagerly.  
So far, it seemed like he could make it all the way through these next few weeks without Liam and Hope finding out about his alliance with the Templars.  
So far.

***  
Hope laughed as she killed Desmond for the tenth time.  
"This is insanity." Was all he said.  
"Insanity?" Adewalé asked. "Maybe not that far, but definately odd."  
"But I thought the men were better." Hickey whimpered.  
"Well, testosterone must not fix everything, it seems." Henry mumbled.  
"Testy-what?" Hickey asked.  
"It's a.... it makes men, men." Desmond explained. Hope killed him for the fifiteenth time and felt a surge of pride."Damn it!!"  
"Are you going to give up?" She said smugly.  
"You wish." Desmond grumbled. "Alright, here. After this private match is over I'll teach Leonardo Minecraft."  
"That sounds boring." Malik said.  
"Not to an artist." Was the reply.  
"I can craft things in Minecraft?!" Leonardo chirped.

***  
After Desmond's match ended with Hope (He died seventeen times and was left with one kill, and that was only because he comletely panicked with his MP7, whatever kind of gun that was.) he taught Leonardo how to play Minecraft.  
"Okay, see. You gotta get some wood before nightfall."  
"What happens at night that I need to be afraid of?"  
"Well, ah... monsters come out, basically."  
"Templars, you mean?" Ezio always called them monsters.  
"What did you just say?!" Élise snapped.  
"No, not Templars." Desmond looked at Élise. "Just your basic creatures. Zombies. Spiders. Skeleton archers. Things like that. But, you can defend yourself from them with a sword."  
"There's a sword! I wanna play!" Hickey whined.  
Desmond ran his hands through his hair. "Well, damn. I'll teach you all how to play Minecraft. At least it's something to keep four of you occupied at one time."


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Madness; Just image what he'd try to build, like The Mona Lisa, made out of blocks.  
> IcedFireFrenzy; Speaking of butthurt, I don't think they ever learned what -butthurt' was in the last story :)  
> Acsister; Yeah, dudes like to assume that the top playerin a lobby is a man, unless they get proven otherwise, and then it's like MINDBLOW. Only tinier. And on a screen.
> 
> It's possible I'll bring Aveline, Altaïr, and Achilles in. Achilles as a younger man, though. Aveline, because I've been reading the Visitorverse (Check it out, it's pretty cool.) series and I'm beginning to officially ship those two.  
> *  
> Also, I won't update for a while after this, just about eight or nine days (Going out of town for a while.)

"Okay, good?" Desmond adjusted the position of Liam's fingers on the remote and then clapped a hand on his arm. "Great. I guess you're laying with Hickey, Leonardo, and Adewalé."  
"I still don't know why the ladies can't go first. We're clearly better at it than you." Hope grumbled.  
Liam rolled his eyes. "Guess I have to say it. You'll whoop our asses."  
"Hey, guys!" Desmond snapped. Someone was calling him upstairs.  
"Desmond! We found some info on Abstergo! Get up here!" Shaun shouted.  
Liam turned back to the game. "So... wait, I'm supposed to just survive?"  
"No. Leonardo and I have already built a house." Adewalé said. "We don't know where Hickey is."  
"I'm coming back to the house. I found some... uh... it looks like powder, for guns." Hickey muttered. "Hang on."  
Liam found Hickey's 'Steve' and followed him back to a house made of wood and some sort of stone that looked like and apparently was cobblestone.  
"Now what?" He asked. "You haven,t even lit up the house yet."  
"Well, if I could find some coal, damn it." Leonardo growled.  
"Maybe if you look in caves?" Henry suggested boredly.  
"Good idea!" Leonardo replied.  
Liam squinted, trying to look through the darkness on the screen-thing. "Huh. That is one odd looking blade of grass."  
"A blade of grass....?" Shay looked over and his jaw dropped. "What the hell? Is that some sort of walking stick? It has eyes!!"  
"Get out of there!" Malik shouted. "It's attacking!"

***  
Maria was almost falling over herself laughing. Beside her, the others had already given in.  
"Oh, my- I- These idiots- I can't-" Élise managed.  
They had found the box to the game- Games had boxes? What?- and read the descriptions on the inside.  
Apparently, the blade of grass was a creeper, and it blew up. But the panicking Assassins and Templar on the floor had no idea.  
"Liam! Run! It's gonna kill you!" Hickey mewled.  
"Get out of there!" Henry added.  
"Would you shut the hell up?! I can't escape, it's- why's it- what the-?!" Liam's exclamation was cut short by a sudden hiss, and 'boom'.  
The Assassins and Templars dropped off into silence.  
Leonardo was the first to speak. "My house...."  
"It was mine, too." Adewalé growled. "Liam, you'd better have a good explanation."  
"Wha- me?! It wasn-t my fault, sir! It was following me-"  
"The look on your faces...." Shao Jun laughed. She held up the 'Minecraft' box. "It was a creeper. Creepers blow up after following you for some time."  
"How do you kill them?" Hickey asked. "I'll slay every creeper in this world!"  
"Fat chance," Maria said. "They 'only spawn at night'."

***  
After they got the whole 'creeper' thing sorted out, Liam gave Henry the remote, then sat back on the floor to watch.  
Hope smiled and flicked on the laser pointer, nudging Shao Jun's arm as she directed the red dot down Shay's foot. The Assassin sat up and lunged for it, slapping his hands down hard on his ankle. He swore when he had nothing.  
Hope turned it toward the T.V., and the red dot hovered in front of Henry's miniature screen.  
Well, it hovered there, until Shay suddenly leaped forward, slamming his palm down in the middle of the T.V.  
"You idiot! Desmond said not to break the screen!" Henry snapped. "Move your hand."  
"I- I finally got it!" Shay exclaimed, holding his hand up. Liam kicked his foot.  
"Oh, for God's sake. Check your hand."  
"I'm telling you, Liam, I've got that sonuvabitch...." Shay trailed off and looked at his hand, frowning.  
Hope and Shao Jun laughed, and she turned the light off, putting it back in her pocket. It was a marvelous little thing, for being so futuristic.

***  
Adewalé raced along a small patch of forest, pondering whether or not to build a ship to sea. He had checked and checked,but there was just nothing labeled 'pirate ship' on the board. All that was there was a little, itty-bitty boat. And it barely floated.  
And he could't fly a flag.  
In the end he just skipped over shipbuilding altogether and went to find Leonardo's house.  
Well, he didn't find a house.  
What he did come back to find was a blown- up Mona Lisa that was supposed to be a house.  
"Like it? I've always had this image of painting a woman like her." Leonardo said.  
Adewalé nodded. Leonardo must not have painted the Mona Lisa yet. "As long as it's well lit. If creepers spawn in the dark we need torches."  
"Torches! I like fire." Hickey said blankly, staringat the T.V.  
"Uh, that worries me." Henry gave him a sideways look.  
"This is a magnificent house, Da Vinci.... but where's the door?" Adewalé asked.  
"Did I add a door... merda! I forgot the door!" The artist groaned.  
"What kind of idiot forgets to add a door?" Shay snickered.  
"What kind of idiot chases red dots?" Adewalé replied.

***  
"Hickey, I swear to God, if you accidently dump lava on me one more time...." Henry trailed off threateningly. While Leonardo and Adewalé were talking about placing doors, he had gone off with Hickey on a mining trip for some coal.  
So far, he figured he had this thing down. All he had to do, really, was go and survive like anyone would in any forest. Well, any forest with skeleton archers, creepers, and zombies. And witches. Holy crap, the witches.  
"I'm sorry." Hickey whined. "It's not my fault you were beside that lava pool."  
"Oh, fine. You're forgiven thos one time. Understand?"  
"Yeah."  
Ten minutes later, Hickey was laughing and making something with a grayish material and sand. If he had to guess, it would be gunpowder.  
"Hickey, what are you making?"  
"Uh..."  
"Hickey. Out with it. Now."  
"Just something."  
"He's making TNT." Adewalé said calmly. "Kill him, Henry."  
"Well, I would if I could find him- there he is. Hickey, I'm coming for you, you little- wait- what are you doing? Hickey?!"  
"Boooooom!" The Templar laughed.

 

***  
Adewalé face was set. "I'm going to kick him from the game."  
Leonardo was instantly distracted from his trying to figure out the pattern of wood for a door. "You can kick people?"  
"Desmond showed me how to."  
Leonardo looked back at Henry, who glared at Hickey angrily.  
"No one kicks me! The betrayer!"  
Leonardo noted Shay bit his lip and looked down.  
"The rogue! The killer!" Hickey paused and thought about it for a moment. "The hunter."  
Shay did what Leonardo guessed he was going to do and got up, leaving the room and slamming the door. He could tell something was definately wrong; he had even ignored the bouncing red dot on the wall. Hope sighed and turned it off.  
"Whatever that was about." Shao Jun said. "And that is why the women should play."  
"Huh." Hickey mumbled. "Did I say something wrong?" To Leonardo's suprise, he actually handed the remote to Shao Jun.  
"Good luck," she said to them.

***  
Shay clenched his fists and stared hard at the wall. Just stared at it, expecting it to talk back. To tell Hickey to shut up and stop reminding him.  
He growled and punched it. It felt good, so he punched it again, until a huge dent appeared in the placid white and his knuckles hurt like hell.  
Then, with his frustration at everything expended for the moment, he turned, opened the door, and walked back into the room.

***  
Shao Jun was already anticipating the game and, after watching several people try their hand at the remote, operated it effortlessly.  
"Why don't we build a city?" She asked. "Rather than focus on one single house for all of us."  
"Good idea." Adewalé said thoughtfully. "But we'll have to gather resources."  
"Lots of them." Henry grinned. "I like chopping wood. It's not as hard as real life- so it'll be quick."  
"I guess I could mine, the cobblestone is an easy resource to get." Adewalé nodded to Leonardo. "You could work on roads, that way we have the building plots all lined up. And Shao Jun, maybe you could defend us at night when the creatures come out."  
She nodded. Killing stuff on a T.V. was a lot easier than killing someone in reality. And, there was more than one way to kill each creatures. Judging by what she had seen, she could use lava, a sword, a bow, or, like Hickey had demonstrated, TNT. She didn't know what that meant, but it seemed explosive.  
She was going to enjoy this.

***  
Malik would have crossed his arms- if he had both of them. He would have played the game- if he had both of them.  
He rolled his eyes and huffed. "Can I please do something else? Let's go outside."  
"Wait,'wait, wait." Liam said. He squinted at the T.V. "I want to see the end result of this."  
"How about you, Shay?" He asked, looking at the Irishman. He wondered if he should tell Shay his knuckles were split, and dripping blood onto the floor by his feet.  
"Sure." Was the reply.  
Malik got up and directed himself to the door he saw earlier, which led to the outside. At least, he hoped it did. It just looked more like an opening and lss like a door; so maybe-  
He smacked into something solid and swore. What kind of sorcery was this?  
Shay stepped up beside him and tugged a silver handle. "It's a sliding glass door, see? Sliding. And made of glass."  
"Sure, sure," Malik murmured. He stood outside and gazed quietly at the light dusting of snow on the ground. To his left was tree, one that his companion- Malik didn't really consider Shay a companion, really.- smiled at.  
"The Grandmaster, he-"  
"Grandmaster?!" Malik said sharply. He always knew something was up with this fellow! Too Templar-ish...  
"No, no, no, not Grandmaster.... I meant Kenway. Kenway." Shay said firmly. "Kenway fell out of the tree when Ziio kissed him."  
"Who's Ziio?" Malik asked.  
"Ziio's a Mohawk woman, he's in love with her." Shay shook his head, then turned and went inside. "Are you coming?"  
"There's not much to do out here, anyway." Malik said quietly, and started after him. Still.  
He knew what he'd heard.

***  
Hickey liked blowing things up. He liked being loud and rude and obnoxious and alightly inebriated at all times.  
But this, this had him transfixed.  
Watching Shao Jun, Henry, Adewalé, and Leonardo scurry around, building a city out of practically nothing, was incredble.  
And it held his attention longer than Haytham did, when he was demanding it.  
"What are you building right now?" He pestered Henry.  
"A shop. Now leave me alone."  
"A shop?"  
"Blacksmith's shop. How's your art gallery coming along?" Henry asked Leonardo.  
"Perfetto!" Came the reply. "These blocky paintings are just marvelous."  
"Can you build a tavern?" Shay asked. Hickey turned and looked at him.  
"Best idea you've had yet- what's wrong with your knuckles."  
"I fell." Shay deadpanned.  
"But-"  
"I fell."  
"Okay, fine." Hickey rolled his eyes. Haytham's lapdog was a jerk. "But, what he said. Build a tavern!"

***  
Hope was impressed, sitting here, watching them build a city.  
It turned out, Henry, Adewalé, Shao Jun, and Leonardo worked extremely well together.  
"Hey, guys," Desmond said from the top of the stairs. He started climbing down. "Heard what happened to Liam from all the way upstairs. Damn, bro. So butthurt."  
"My butt's not hurting." Liam frowned and shook his head.  
"No, it means someones just really defensive or offended- for no major reason."  
Hope sighed. And here they went again. This happened at the Homestead all the time. Every time Liam heard of a new word, it made up most of his vocabulary for at least a week. The worst was when he figured out how to say 'fuck you' in French. It turned out he was only parroting the words from a bartender in Boston and had no idea what they meant until he said it to the wrong person, and they nearly killed him for it. Adewalé and Achilles both took ten minutes to pull Chevalier off him.  
"Oh." Liam grinned. "Like... Henry got butthurt when Hickey killed him?"  
"You sonuvabitch." Henry growled.  
"Yeah, guess so."

***  
Élise looked back at Henry and laughed. "Butthurt is a good way to describe it."  
He wrinkled his nose in disgust. "You people are so cruel."  
"Oh, yeah, they're cruel. Wha about me? The ruthless Templar?" Hickey pouted.  
Élise gave him a condescending look. "Don't kid yourself. You couldn't 'ruthless' your way out a of wet parchment."  
"You take that back right now!" He gasped.  
"Butthurt!" Liam shouted, throwing a pillow at Hickey.  
Hickey jumped on the Irishman, and in seconds they had started a full-on fight on the floor.  
"Um...." Malik began.  
"Should we pull them apart?" Desmond asked.  
"No, wait," Élise said, "This is just getting good."


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Acsister; I have it figured out how he's going to get busted ;)
> 
> This chapter is long overdue.

While Leonardo, Henry, Malik, Élise, Shay, Maria, and Shao Jun preferred to stay downstairs playing the X-Box, Laim, Hope, and Hickey explored the house.  
Hickey peered into the tiny room they'd just discovered and sighed. "Too many books, even for the Grandmaster."  
"Watch it, Templar." Liam growled. Hickey noticed the Irishman went straight for the books about the Assassins.  
"You watch it," Hickey snapped.  
"Ladies, you're both beautiful." Hope laughed. "Calm down."  
"Hey, look." Liam pulled out a thick book. "This says 'The History of the Assassin's Creed'."  
Hickey rolled his eyes. "Stupid. Is there one about Templars?"  
"Sure," Hope said. "One problem."  
"What's that?"  
"It's so far up your ass you can't even see it any more."  
Hickey was getting irritated with these Assassins, and decided if they pushed him anymore about being a Templar, he'd spill Shay's secret.  
"Hey, Hope, chrck this out. It's about Adewalé." Liam grinned and motioned to Hope.  
Hickey stepped closer, rather curious about the Assassin of the West Indied. "Can I see?"  
"Not you. Go find a book about Templars." Liam leered at him.  
Hickey felt something snap. "Really? You haven't been telling Shay that."  
Hope looked at him sideways. "What do you mean?"  
"Oh, I thought you knew." He crossed his arms.  
"Knew what?" Liam closed the book.  
"Shay's a Templar."  
"Pfft- no he's not." Hope bit her lip. "You're lying."  
"Am I?" Hockey asked smugly. "Read it in the book. Just find Shay Patrick Cormac."  
Liam opened the book again. "If you're lying...."  
"I'm not. You'll see."

***  
Liam scanned the page one more time. Felt his mouth drop open. Then he closed it again and threw the book down.  
"Hope, stay here." He stalked out of the room, then took the stairs two at a time.  
"Hey, Liam," Shay chirped, holding up a remote from the floor. "Look what we found in Minecraft- Uh... Liam?"  
Liam stepped over Leonardo and Henry and grabbed Shay's collar, dragging him to his feet. "You went running into the arms of the enemy, ah?"  
Leonardo started to look genuinely panicked. "What happened?"  
"Liam, it's not worth killing him!" Hope said from the top of the stairs. Hickey stood beside her and nodded.  
"Kill him!" Hickey squealed and there was the sound of someone falling down the stairs, then cursing fit to kill.  
Liam brought his face close to Shay's. "Tell me, what's the name of your Grandmaster?"  
"Haytham E. Kenway." Shay hissed. Liam kneed him in the stomach, then dragged him out the glass door (After cracking hs head against it a few times.).  
He stumbled through the snow outside, then turned to shove Shay into the half-frozen pool outside.  
"You're coming with me, then! For not listening!" Shay yowled, grabbing his arm at the right moment.  
They both fell into the water, breaking the thin layer of ice.  
"Hey!" Henry called from the door. "Someone come help me pull them out!"  
"No!" Liam spat. He twisted in the water and boxed Shay's ribs. "This is what you get for being one of them!"  
He felt arms grasp his shoulders and tug him out, and Adewalé slapped him so hard his eyes flashed white. "Calm down!"  
Liam's eyes cleared and he saw Shay shoved past the others who had helped him out, heading inside.  
"What happened?" Shao Jun demanded. "You were fine when you went upstairs."  
"Shay's a Templar!" Liam sputtered. "Don't believe anything he says!"  
"What does it matter if he's a Templar?" Leonardo asked. "It doesn't mean you should both attempt to drown yourselves."  
"In case neither of you noticed, it's 40° out here!" Henry growled.  
"40- what?" Maria asked.  
"It means it's really cold." Henry lowered his voice and shook his head. "Just... come inside so you don't get frostbite."  
Liam looked back at the pool and nodded. He didn't intend to talk to Shay again.

***  
"Hey, guys, what are you- whoa." Desmond froze in the doorway, looking at Shay and Liam, who were going ti walk upstairs.  
Maria wondered if he'd comment on how both Irishmens' clothes were plastered to their bodies and they were shivering; they looked a little like drowned rats to her.  
"Um, are you alright? Should I-"  
"'S fine, Desmond," Shay mumbled. "I remember what happened to Altaïr."  
"Altaïr?" She asked. "What happened to Altaïr?"  
"Where's a blanket?" Liam moaned.  
"Hey, um... Shay can show you how to take a hot shower-"  
"Shay's not showing me anything, Desmond." Liam snapped. He clipped Shay's shoulder as the Assassin- Templar. He was a Templar- sidled past to go upstairs.  
"Oh, you... oh."  
"Oh, what?" Hope asked.  
"Hey, Laim, tell you what. I'll show you how to take a shower in the bathroom down here. Someone go find me some new clothes."  
Maria nodded and went upstairs, looking around for Shay. She found him in the bathroom (Since when were they that bright and... so ornate?) trying to peel his clothes off. Trying, because they were plastered to him.  
"What do you want?" He huffed.  
"Why didn't you tell them?"  
"About my being a Templar? You wouldn't understand."  
"Maybe I would."  
"No. You wouldn't." He didn't sound so sure.  
"Is it because they are your friends?"  
"Were. Because they were my friends."  
Maria shook her head. "No. I think they are."  
"What's that supposed to mean?"  
She was already walking away.  
"Maria?"

***  
Shay thought about what Maria said.  
No, I think they are....  
Was she implying that she didn't think Liam really hated him?  
Shay turned on the water and jumped back, trying to remember that first time Edward turned the water on while he was in the tub, still wondering what the hell was going on.  
It didn't matter, he decided, as the warm water touched his skin. It really didn't anymore- the damage was done. He was a Templar.

***  
"Alright, so you don't have to be afraid." Desmond said.  
"I'm not afraid." Liam sounded exasperated, and Adewalé laughed. A lot of the Jackdaw's crewman said that, but many of them were afraid of minor things, such as the dark and snakes.  
"Are you sure?" Desmond asked, grinning. He sat on the edge of the tub- that was what it was called, right? Adewalé couldn't remember.- and gripped the shiny metal thing tightly, turning it to the red painted line.  
Water gushed from a metal faucet, and Liam shrieked, practically jumping into Adewalé's arms. "What the fuck is that!"  
"Um. Water." Desmond said through laughter.  
"It's- it's not funny! Stop laughing!"  
"Liam, we won't stop laughing until you get on your own feet." Adewalé chuckled.  
Liam reddenned and dropped to the floor. "Sorry, sir...."  
"Oh, you think a water faucet'll trip tou out, wait till you see the actual shower." Desmond grinned and pulled a little metal nub on the faucet.  
There was a weird whistling noise and water rained from another metal faucet, higher this time.  
Liam's eyes boggled. "Uh-uh. No one's putting me in that thing."  
Adewalé shrugged. "Is it warm water, Desmond?"  
"Yeah." Came the reply.  
Liam was attempting to back out of the bathroom, but Malik and Hickey were stopping him from leaving. "I'm not getting in that."  
"It's for your own good, buddy." Desmond said through chuckles.  
Adewalé shook his head. "Liam, it's not going to hurt you, see?" He stuck his arm into the water and was suprised by how warm it was. "It's not cold, either."  
"You can't make me get in that thing!"  
Liam turned and tried to barrel through the Assassins and Templars, but they stopped him. Malik out his hand on Liam's shoulder. "It'll warm you up; you're shaking like there's not tomorrow, and your clothes are all wet."  
"You promise it's warm, sir?" Liam grumbled, turning back.  
"I promise." Adewalé nodded. He liked these two, Liam and Hope. Especially Liam. He called him 'sir'- and in the 1700's it was very difficult to come by anyone who would call him that.  
"Fine."

***  
Élise went back to the X-Box, where Henry and Leonardo were.  
"You had to have known about Shay being a Templar." She said to Henry.  
He shrugged, not loong away from the game. "You did, too. Yet you refrained from telling them."  
"True." After a while, Shao Jun joined them.  
"Are we still making the city?"  
"We started a new world." Leonardo said. "Instead, we're in Creative Mode, since it's easier to make a city."  
"I see." Shao Jun looked back as Shay trotted down the stairs. He had exchanged his wet flothes for a simple back shirt and pants, and a leather belt.  
"Back so soon?" Henry asked.  
Shay gave him a look. "Knock it off. If you're from the 1800's and I really left any impression, you knew I'm a Templar."  
"Damn right I know. You nearly obliterated the American Assassins and went on to set the standard for Assassin Hunters." Henry growled.  
"I did?"  
Élise looked back at Shay. "What year are you from?"  
"1756."  
"That explains it, Henry." She said, then ignored Hickey as he sat down obmoxiously close to her.  
"How are you doing?" He asked.  
"Go fuck yourself." She rolled her eyes.  
He sounded affronted. "You French ladies can be brutal."  
"Only to asshole like you."  
"Please don't swear." Leonardo gave them each a sideways look. "Look at the skyscraper Shao Jun and I are building!" Liam, Adewalé, Maria, Malik, and Hope came into the room, and Desmond trotted upstairs.  
"No fighting. If I hear of anyone trying to kill anyone, so help me..." He threatened.  
"Oui, monsieur." She called after him.  
"Merci." Came the reply.  
"What are you..." Liam's eyes narrowed and he glared at Shay. "... doing?"  
"Building skyscrapers!" Leonardo chimed happily.  
For the sake of Leonardo's innocence, it seemed, everyone quieted down long enough to watch him build.

***  
Henry placed block after block and grinned. "Once you get used to it, it's easy."  
"Maybe I would know if I had two hands!" Malik grumbled. Shao Jun looked at him, then at her controller.  
"Come here, Malik."  
"What?" He asked.  
"If you can work with me, you can know." She said softly. "See?" She instructed him where to put his fingers on one side of the controller.  
Henry marveled at her patience, then wondered if he'd ever be able to be like that with Jacob and Evie. There had been a moment, once, when Jacob had come to him a little past midnight, with a split lip and borken arm, and Evie at his side, cursing the Blighters. Henry had never been more patient for Jacob's swearing than that night.  
Soon enough, Malik was scurrying around the city they had theoretically built (Technically it was a city, but technically it wasn't, because it was in a T.V.) grinning from ear to ear. "This is amazing!"  
Then he set a tree on fire.  
Henry sighed.  
Patience, he reminded himself.

***  
Malik finished lighting the tree on fire, then laughed and ziiped around the forest a couple more times. True, Shao Jun held half the remote for him, but she let him do whatever he wanted and went with it.  
He finally blinked and shook himself; he was acting childish and just like... Altaïr, sometimes.  
"Thank you." He said to Shao Jun.  
She nodded. "It isn't a problem. See? You can ask for help if you want."  
That shadowed thought entered his mind again. The one that always came when someone said 'help' in reference to him; the thought of being a liability.  
"Yes... I guess I can." He said, turning back to the game. "You have built a very good city."  
"Eh." Henry shrugged. "So far we have a burning tree, a half-built skyscraper, a blacksmith, and a restaurant."  
"Sorry." Malik found a bucket of water and put the burning tree out of its misery.  
"Can you come help me with this skyscraper? It'll go quicker." Leonardo said.  
"Coming." Henry motioned to Shao Jun and Malik. "Come on."  
Malik smiled. It felt... good.... to be part of a team. He had grown to used to working alone.

***  
Leonardo felt energetic.  
Well, he always did when he was making art; a skyscraper was no different.  
"Let's see... I want to have thirty floors... so far we're at nineteen." He said to himself.  
"Should we add anything to the outside?" Malik suggested. "It looks kind of dull."  
"We're adding windows, but..." Leonardo circled around and studied the skyscraper for approximately five minutes, onky stopping when the others began giving him strange looks for lingering too long. "Okay, okay. Anyone ever teach you how good art takes time?"  
"Da Vinci, we finished four floors." Henry deadpanned. But, he was smiling.  
Leonarod shrugged. "You are like Ezio. All 'rushrushrush'."  
"Maybe we have good reason to be, being Assassins." Liam glared at Shay as he said that, and Leonardo saw Shay bury his face in his arms.  
"You don't have to argue and fight." He frowned. "Plenty of time for that in your own time zones."  
"You know...." Adewalé trailed off, deep in thought. "You know, Leonardo is right. We don't have to be Assassins and Templars. We can just be.. people, here. We've already been told we can't kill each other here, so why don't we just drop this feud?"  
There was silence.  
Leonardo looked around and was suprised to see nods from everyone, even Liam.  
"Alright... we'll try out an hour-long truce. If it works, we'll try and stay out of fights." Élise said.  
Leonardo nodded. "Thank you!"  
Ezio would never believe him if he told him he just put the centuries-old Assassin-Templar war on pause.

***  
Shao Jun mothodically helped Malik place blocks along the skyscraper, forming the walls.  
She had heard of Malik Al-Sayf, the Assassin who did not smile often in his life.  
Yet here he was, right next to her, the grin on his face unmatched by even Leonardo's (And that man looked cheerful no matter what happened.).  
"Are you enjoying this?" She asked.  
He kept his voice down so only she could here. "I am... it feels normal."  
She nodded. Malik wasn't nessesarily a person in physical need, but the way he acted sometimes, bitter with the world, she drew that this was helping him somewhere in his consience.  
"Almost done, we're at the twenty-sixth floor." He announced happily.  
"Did Malik just say that?" Liam asked. "And.. cheerfully, too?"  
"Yes." Élise said. "Now be quiet or you'll ruin it."

 

***  
Hope smiled.  
No Templars and Assassins, at least for an hour. Still, Shay was curled on the couch, his face in his arms.  
She frowned and took out the laser pointer, wondering if anything would cheer him up. Sure, he was a Templar, but he was her Templar, damn it.  
The little red dot landed on the couch right on his belly and he lifted his head, his brown eyes going wide.  
She eased it down toward the floor, watching him get to a crouching position, and, like a cat, adjust his hips and knees until he was ready to pounce.  
Which he did, as soon as Hope moved the dot onto Liam's foot.  
"Ow! Motherfu-"  
"Liam!" Élise said sharply.  
"I got it! I got-" Shay looked down at his hand and groaned.  
Hope moved the dot onto the wall and nearly laughed out loud when Shay flattented himself against it, one hand waving above his head, trying to reach it.  
"Damn it, Hope." Henry said.  
"Look at this idiot." Hickey snickered. Wherever the dot went, Shay went.  
"Come on, quit acting the maggot, Shay. Sit down." Liam said.  
"Not until I kill it- where'd it go?"  
Hope put the laser pointer back in her pocket. "I think you killed it, Shay."  
"Damn right!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Acting the maggot' is slang for acting randomly or obnoxiously.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IcedFireFrenzy; Figured they'd get along well while doing something constructive... like not tearing each other apart limb by limb due to loyalties.... :)  
> Acsister; Shay used to be best buds with Liam and Hope, and there was always something hinted at, although her last words to him were about his potential, which made their relationship seem more like student/buddy/teacher.  
> The watcher; Thanks!
> 
>  
> 
> Syndicate comes out today!

Hickey looked back as Desmond trotted down the stairs and into the kitchen, then got up and wandered in after him.  
"What are you doing?" He asked, peering around. This place seemed way too clean to him. Like his room back at the Green Dragon. If it was too clean, it had to go.  
"Getting a snack." Desmond looked into the pantry, his back turned. "I just fed you guys an hour ago."  
Hickey rolled his eyes. "Maybe I'm hungry."  
"Maybe you're not."  
Hickey sauntered over to the silver box and pulled it open, inwardly marveling at the way it worked. It kept food safe and cool, so nothing rotted.  
"Just don't break anything," Desmond said, pulling out a little red bag of... Doritos? What were those?  
"What are-"  
"Don't even. I've had enough of that vine." Desmond snickered and opened the red crinkly bag. "This, my friend, is the best food ever to grace the Earth. Now watch, as soon as I leave this kitchen, your pals will be all over me."  
"Pals? They aren't my pals."  
"Oh, please, you'll be spending the next week and a half or so with them." Desmond looked back from the doorway. "They're your pals."  
Hickey huffed and looked back at the contents of the silver thing. Some bread, milk in an odd-shaped container, apples (Better hide those from Liam and Shay.), and... what was in that jar?  
Hickey pulled the jar out and set in on the counter, then frowned. Pickles. They were definately pickles. Alright.  
He grabbed the top and twisted, then tried again. And again. And again. The jar wasn't opening. He growled through his teeth.  
"Someone come help me with this!"

***  
Shortly after Desmond wondered in, with a loud, crinkly bag of red.... whatever Doritos were.... Hickey's voice wafted from the kitchen, shouting for help.  
Liam looked sideways at Henry. "You do it."  
"Why me?" Henry growled. "Let's flip a coin, then."  
"Fine. Anyone have a coin?"  
Shay tossed him one from the couch. Hiding the twinge of anger at his old friend, Liam thanked him and balanced it on his thumb.  
"Heads." Henry said. "It's the lucky side."  
"I make my own-" Maria chucked a pillow at Shay to silence him.  
Liam flipped the coin, then cursed as the apparently unlucky side gazed up at him.  
"Go help him," Desmond said smugly.  
"Ehat are you eating?" Hope asked.  
Liam ignored them and trotted into the kitchen. "What do you want?"  
"It won't open."  
"A jar." Liam looked at the little jar on the counter, and then back at Hickey, gazing forlornly at it. "You can't open... a jar."  
"Not just any jar. There's pickles in there."  
"Okay. You can't open a pickle jar. Still a jar."  
"Would you just help me!?" Hickey groaned.  
Liam took the jar and tried to open it. Tried again. Then again. Then once more before he began to get irritated.  
He tried again, then swore and punched the cap with his fist. It didn't spring off, but it hurt his hand like hell.  
For several minutes after they passed it back and forth, trying to open it.  
At last they stopped, and stared at the lid with hate.  
"Maybe if we beat the lid with a spoon?"  
"Shut up, Hickey."

***  
"Come on, Desmond, what are you eating?" Shao Jun pressed, not looking away from the X-Box screen. Beside her, Malik was still grinning ear-to-ear, and she didn't want to leave him unable to play the game.  
"What does Doritos mean?" Leonardo asked.  
"It means...." Desmond frowned. "I don't know what it means."  
"What kind of bread are they made off?" Maria asked. "I hear crunching."  
"Something... dried. Or cooked." Élise looked at Desmond until he began to squirm on the couch and he tossed her one.  
"What's it taste like?" Shay asked.  
"Cheese." Élise scowled and shook her head. "It doesn't taste... natural... but it tastes good."  
"Can I have one?" Shao Jun asked.  
"Yeah." Desmond stood behind Malik and Shao Jun. "You'll have to pause it."  
Recluctantly, Malik pressed the Pause button. "Make it quick, we're almost done with the skyscraper."  
Desmond gave them each one, then retreated to the couch, where Shay began pestering him if he could have one.  
"It looks so thin and unedible." Malik said.  
Shao Jun agreed. "Count of three, we'll both do it, alright?"  
"Agreed. One, two, three." They popped them into their mouths at the same time.  
Shao Jun felt the Dorito splinter like wood, then, just as Élise said, it tasted like cheese. Not real cheese, but really good cheese.  
By now, Desmond had given everyone one of those Doritos, and they were all quiet for a while, forming their opinions.  
"I like it," Shay said.  
"Eh. It tastes alright." Adewalé shrugged.  
"I agree with Adewalé." Shoa Jun nodded to him.  
"So, if I were to leave this bag here and get another one, you wouldn't touch this."  
"Yes." Leonardo nodded, but his grin was betraying.  
"You're all sure."  
"Yes." Élise said.  
Desmond left the bag there and went into the kitchen.

***  
Everyone stared at the little red bag of Doritos.  
"He said he was getting a new one, right?" Shay asked.  
"Don't you even think about it." Hope swatted him with a pillow.  
Maria bit her lip and looked back at the X-Box. "Speaking of leaving, where did Liam and Hickey go?"  
"The kitchen." Henry grinned, and in a deep, announcer-like voice, said, "Never to return."  
"Oh, stop. Maybe they both found food they really liked." Adewalé said.  
"Like Doritos." Leonardo said in a tiny voice.  
Everyone fell quiet again.  
"Just one." Shay squeaked. Hope smacked him with a pillow again.  
"Oh, calma, if you wait until he gets back, you can ask him for one." Leonardo told him.  
"Maybe he won't notice." Henry said thoughtfully.  
Maria stood up and started forward. "As long as a thief can cover his tracks, he can steal whatever he wants."  
Then, in front of the awed Assassins and Templars, she pulled a Dorito out of the bag and ate it.  
Shay started to move off the couch, and Hope held his shirt collar tightly. "Come on, we taught you better."  
Maria took another one and laughed as the others fell over themselves in their haste to be sneaky.

 

***  
Élise peered into the kitchen questioningly. Liam and Hickey were sitting at the table, each of them eating a pickle with an angry look on their face, while Desmond cleaned up bits of broken glass off the floor.  
"What happened?" She asked.  
"Someone decided to go Commando on a jar of pickles." Desmond looked pointedly at Liam, who waved a fist at him. "And for your information, the jar won."  
"It did not! I just dropped it!" Liam declared.  
"Well... that's what you've been doing in here?"  
"Yeah, why?" Desmond asked. "They ate the chips, didn't they?"  
"Maybe." She shrugged. "I didn't stick around to get in trouble for it."  
Desmond grinned. "It was just an experiment. I wanted to see if Doritos are really that irresistable."  
"That's mean." But she smiled back.  
"Who's around to say it is? Dad, Shaun, and Rebecca are all upstairs. I hope one day theyir electronics break and they can't buy more. You know, so they could live life, instead of digitalizing it."  
Élise didn't know what 'digitalizing' or 'electronics' were, but she agreed. So far she had seen little of the other three Assassins.  
So, she motioned to Desmond to come closer so she could whisper in his ear the idea that formed in her mind.

***  
"Come on, Hope, just one," Shay groaned. He just wanted one Dorito.  
"Yeah, well, stealing it?"  
He gave her puppy eyes.  
"No, Shay."  
He stuck out his bottom lip for effect.  
"No, Shay."  
And waited.  
"No, Sh- damn it, only one."  
He smiled and shot of the couch, reaching into the odd crinkly bag- he didn't see these here last time- and got a little Dorito out, examining it.  
"How is it so tiny and made of bread at the same time?" Adewalé asked, getting one as well.  
"Maybe they used a Piece of Eden to make it." Maria suggested.  
"Who cares. It's delicious!" Leonardo grinned.  
Shay felt himself smile, too, and then looked at the X-Box screen. "Will you keep playing?"  
"After I enjoy this little piece of heaven." Malik said, looking at the Dorito in his hand.  
"You don't get cheese very often, do you?" Henry asked.

***  
Malik shrugged.  
"I don't usually care for it. But this... this is good."  
"Meat is better." Shao Jun said. "It's better for the body."  
"Let's keep building this skyscraper," Leonardo said, when Malik had finished.  
He nodded. "We're a few blocks away from being done, right?"  
Shao Jun held him take his part of the controller, then her part.  
He rather liked building. And crafting things, he had come to realize. Maybe when he got back to Masyaf he could try painting something. It wouldn't look like Leonardo's Desmond-Lisa, as Henry called it, but he knew for certain it wouldn't look like Shay's deformed pear.  
Malik sat back and felt his smile grow wider when they zoomed away from the skyscraper. It was so big, they had to back up a fair deal to see it on the screen.  
"Whoa," Shay breathed.  
"Well." Leonardo shrugged. "In order to be impressive, there has to be many."  
Malik agreed.

 

***  
Adewalé snuck another Dorito and stood up, feeling a little bored with Minecraft for the time being.  
Wondering about the others, he went into the kitchen, pausing when he saw Liam, Hockey, Desmond, and Élise huddled together, talking about something quietly.  
"Am I interupting something?" He asked from the doorway.  
Liam looked up and shook his head. "No. You're welcome to join us, sir."  
Adewalé nodded. There it was again. 'Sir'. He'd have to ask Liam about that.  
"So, here's the plan," Desmond said in a low voice. "We'll wait until a little bit after my dad and the other two have gone to sleep, then, we'll go in and hide the chargers for their electronics."  
"What are electronics?" He inquired.  
"X-Boxes, computers, phones, tablets." Desmond grinned. "We actually don't have much to do for the next few days, at least electronically. They won't be missing anything."  
"Will we tell the others?" Hickey asked.  
"I don't trust Shay to keep his mouth shut." Liam said coldly. Élise punched his arm.  
"That's rude. He joined our Order for a good cause. Just like you joined the Assassins, for your percieved 'good cause'."  
"Oh?" The Irishman growled. "And what's your good cause, other enslavement and-"  
"Enough." Adewalé said loudly.  
"Yeah," Hickey said. "Quit arguing. We're trying to work as team."  
"Hickey? Working?... Team?" Liam choked. Élise gave him a dirty look.  
"Oh, come on, he's not that lazy-"  
"Guys." Desmond cleared his throat. "Focus we need to think of where we're going to hide the chargers."  
Adewalé nodded. "Come on, let's explore the house and grt an idea of the hiding spots."

***  
Henry wondered if Desmond would get mad at them if they finished the whole bag. The way Shay and Leonardo kept sneaking over, he was sure they would be gone by the time the Assassin got back.  
"Okay, Hope, keep him out of those." He said, when Shay went to the bag of Doritos for the fifth time.  
The Irishman gazed forlornly at the Doritos as Hope pulled him back from them. "Just one more?"  
Henry gently pulled Leonardo away from the bag.  
"They're really good. I'll bet a master chef invented them!" Leonardo exclaimed.  
"More like Master Assassin." Henry said. By now there were only three people playing the X-Box; he had gotten off in order to keep an eye on the Doritos.  
"Master what?" Shao Jun asked.  
"Never mind."  
Shay kept one arm out to the bag of Doritos, then stood up and left the room. He paused in the doorway, grinning. "I'll come back for you!" Then left to go to the kitchen.  
"The Doritos or the couch?" Malik asked honestly.  
"Just go with it. He's weird like that." Henry noted Hope was looking at the bag of Doritos with a glint in her eyes.  
"Not you, too." He groanrd. Then again, they did taste good... and maybe Desmond wouldn't miss one or two...

***  
Leonardo tried to supress a smug grin when he saw Henry and Hope eying the bag of Doritos on the table.  
Considering it just sat there, luring them into its trap, they had actually done a good job of resisting.  
"Are there chinks in the armor?" He asked.  
"I don't know what you're talking about." Hope said.  
"Me neither." Henry, with some difficulty, forced his gaze from the bag then onto the X-Box.  
A short while later, Leonardo noticed his eyes were drifting back to it again. "You know you want to."  
"Damn it, be quiet. You're making me hungry." Henry moaned.  
"How many more skyscrapers are you going to build?" Maria asked.  
"A lot." He replied.  
"That's a lot of skyscrapers."  
Leonardo laughed and went back to Minecraft. So far, Malik and Shao Jun had done a very good job of laying the streets down with stone, organizing different spaces for different shops. He already had a general idea of what to add. A tailor, a weaponsmith, a blacksmith, a hewer's workshop...  
Maybe he could add Desmond's house.  
It would be a challenge. Considering they hadn't been here very long.  
He smiled.  
Like Ezio, he found challenges the best part of life.

***  
Hope finally couldn't take it anymore and left the room, wondering why Liam, Shay, Adewalé, Hickey, and Élise were huddled up at the table.  
"Hope, come see what we're going to do!" Shay whispered to her. Liam facepalmed, then gave Hickey an 'I-Told-You-So' look. She wondered what that was about, because Adewalé gave him a look.  
"Quit that; the man's just people-friendly."  
Liam looked mortified (He well should have been; that was Adewalé he had upset.) and quieted down.  
"So what are you going to do?" Hope asked.  
"Alright...." Desmond began to explain.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Acsister; Brain freezes. Brain freezes everywhere xD  
> IcedFireFrenzy; Gist would be proud ;)  
> The watcher; I can imagine everyone trying to steal the others' food.
> 
> Holy shit, I got busy and this went unupdated for about a month. I'm back now :)  
> And I'm thinking about bringing some Assassins/ Templars back, or bringing new ones. Not sure yet.  
> Kind of a short chapter tonight.

Shao Jun and Malik simply could not ignore the big group of Assassins/ Templars that barged into the room several minutes later, all of them clearly excited for something.  
"What are you all so happy about?" Malik asked. Seriously, anyone who got the moee serious Assassins to smile, they must have had to do some work.  
"Desmond bought us pizza!" Hickey exclaimed.  
"Yeah, and..." Desmond trailed off, looking at the bag of Doritos on the table. "You guys can finish those."  
Shay and Leonardo lunged for it, their heads cracking with loud yelps of pain when Henry pulled the bag out from between them.  
"I've been meaning to try these," he said, peering into the bag uncertainly. "How about you, Hope?"  
"I want some, too." She answered, stepping over the cursing Irishman and Italian at her feet.  
"What should we do while we wait for the pizza?" Hickey asked.  
"We could play stomp on Templar balls." Liam snickered.  
"What was that about Templars?" Shay demanded, standing over the Assassin.  
"I'd help you get out of the incoming beating, Liam, but you should really learn when to be quiet." Hope said, finishing off the Doritos with Henry.  
"These are good," The Indian said," But they taste sort of fake."  
"Yeah," Desmond agreed.  
"What if the pizza's fake?!" Hickey groaned.  
"It had better not be." Adewalé growled. "That would make living in this 'modern' world horrible."  
"Chill out, guys, it's not fake." Desmond assured them. Malik rolled his eyes.  
"Chill out? It's warm in here, how are we supposed to-"  
"No, no, no, see, it's... it's an expression. Kind of like 'the straw that broke the camel's back', or, like... I don't know."  
"You have difficulty providing examples." Élise observed.  
"Shaun says that a lot."  
Shao Jun gently took the X-Box controller out of Malik's reach and turned off the device, still eerily reminded of how it was similar to most Precursor Artefacts.  
"So what's this 'pizza' made of?" She asked.  
"Well, it's this awsome mix of cheese-"  
"Wait, is it those triangles you gave us last time?" Shay inquired, looking up from where he had Liam in a headlock.  
"Triangles?" Hope asked.  
"Yes, at the hotel." Desmond nodded.  
"What hotel?" Élise said blankly.  
"It's a long story." Shay answered.  
"Do we have any paper? And a pencil, I definately need a pencil." Leonardo piped up.  
"Dad?" Desmond called.  
"What?" Came the answer, from upstairs.  
"Can I have some paper and a pencil?"  
"Why?"  
"So Leonardo can draw."  
"No."  
Desmond rolled his eyes and looked at the Italian. "One sec; one does not simply say no to drawing to Leonardo da Vinci." He eased himself off the couch and went upstairs.  
"So describe this 'pizza'." Liam elbowed Shay off him and sat back, rubbing his neck.  
"Well, it's this traingle of bread, and it has cheese and tomato sauce melted on the top, and it's really good. Ezio said an Italian must have created it."  
"Ezio." Henry shook his head. "I will never get used to hearing that."  
"I still don't really know who he is." Maria said.  
"Now I'm more hungry than before," Hickey groaned.  
Desmond took the stairs two at a time, a paper and a pencil in his hand. "Here," he said, giving them to Leonardo, "I fought tooth and nail against Rebecca for that. Use it wisely and sign your name."  
"Sign my name?" Leonardo asked. "You lot really appreciate me- thank you!"  
"You'd have to be stupid not to appreciate you." Adewalé said.  
"I'm not stupid and I don't appreciate you." Hickey grumbled.  
"Someone smother him with a pillow." Hope said.  
"On it!" Liam exclaimed. Shay grabbed Liam's collar and yanked him back.  
"Now what do we do?" Shao Jun asked.  
"Eh.... I'd give you ice cream, but it's too close to dinner." Desmond looked at the clock. "Pizza should be here soon."  
"How long does it take?" Élise asked.  
"About half an hour," came the reply. "And then after the three upstairs are asleep, we can go ahead with the plan."  
"What plan? Malik asked.  
"Indeed." Henry said slowly. "You're not hiding anything from us, are you?"  
"I hope not." Shao Jun said.  
Liam and Adewalé clamped their hands over Shay's mouth, much to the Templar's visible irritation.  
"Eh, let him go, we can use all the help we can get; if you saw how many cables my dad and Friends have up there, you'd have a heart attack." He sat forward and looked square at Malik, Henry, and Shao Jun. "Alright...."


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IcedFireFrenzy: Nah, what're you talking about, nothing can go wrong at all... ;)  
> Acsister: Who do you think would have the best reaction, William, Shaun, or Rebecca?  
> Singing_Cheshire: Tanks for the compliment! :)
> 
> Update times may get slow this week; but the next few weeks should definitely be faster.

"So." LeMay studied the rooms the new arrivals were in. "We aren't to leave these guys unattended. If we have to talk to them, they stay in the room."  
Beside her, one of the technies, Oscar, looked up from his computer. "Stats are good. They've all eaten recently, so.... it's basically sitting around being interrogated for the next week."  
"Okay..." She nodded and smiled. "This should go more smoothly now..."

***  
Jacob buried himself deeper under the covers of his bed on the Train Hideout, feeling perfectly comfortable and warm and safe and free and  
He opened one eye.  
This was not his favorite, rough blanket he stole from Henry that first night in London.  
Nor was this the Train Hideout.  
With an outraged growl, he threw back the crisp white blanket, fully expecting to confront Evie as to just what the hell kind of prank this was.  
He froze, eyes wide. White walls, white bed, slightly different color door. Those lights.  
Something familiar itched at the back of his mind and he shook his head. Was he drunk again? No, no, his stomach felt fine, nothing was tipping. He wasn't insane. At least, he hoped he wasn't. Jacob stood up and looked around, aware he had no weapons.  
"Hey!" He shouted. Nothing. "Whoever did this- show yourself!"  
Still nothing.

***  
Ziio's first reaction was irritation.  
Irritation at being stolen from that peaceful night at the village. Her son, almost four and a half, had proclaimed how much of a man he was that night to sleep on his own five feet away. She had woken up twenty minutes later to him snuggled against her side, sleeping peacefully.  
She smiled on the memory, then drew back to being alert.  
This room was vaguely familiar. The walls, the bed... the door.  
Ziio's second reaction was surprise. She hadn't expected to find herself here... again. She tried to think. Names with faces attached to them began to form in her mind. Ezio Auditore. Altair Ibn-La'Ahad. Aveline de Grandpré. Arno Dorian. Shay Cormac. Edward Kenway. Haytham.  
She closed her eyes, sighing. She couldn't have been the only one here.  
Right?

***  
Ezio groaned, not wanting to wake up.  
Too tired. A long night of chasing Templars drew all his energy away, and he had collapsed on the nearest, softest sleeping spot. So maybe it wasn't the best position. But that eagle had seemed to understand how he was feeling and let him keep the remainder of the nest.  
Maybe the sun would go away. Maybe it would go away and he would climb back down to the ground and go buy some oranges. He had grown fond of them recently.  
But...  
Wait.  
That was the sun.  
And this was not the borrowed eagle's nest.

***  
Haytham threw back the blanket. "Shay?"  
No response.  
"Absolutely not. The one night I have to stay on the Morrigan overnight and you and Gist pull this shite on me."  
Still nothing.  
"Shamrock?"  
Here was the real test. "If you don't come out I swear, you will be kicked out of the Order."  
Well, Shay didn't spring from underneath the bed, begging for forgiveness. He was-  
Wait, this was too familiar.  
The white walls, the bed, the door...  
And Ziio was here last time. He felt something spark in his chest and fought back a smile at the chance of seeing her. Maybe.  
But it would mean getting out of here.

***  
Arno groaned and slapped the bed.  
"Not again, damn it!"  
The room was still; nothing made a reply.  
He lay back on the bed and tried to gather his thoughts. Maybe if.... No, that wouldn't work.  
He closed his eyes and cycled through his memories. Names of people. What those people did. Haytham and Shamrock- bad. Altair and Ezio- good.  
How they got out last time...  
The odd-colored sandbags...  
Okay.  
Maybe all he had to do was wait for them to come and get him, send him back to the room with the others. And if they didn't come...  
He'd find a way out when they brought food.  
His gaze fell on the miniature sun above him. The memory of climbing onto his bed, smashing it with his boot, washed over him.  
Or maybe...

***  
Altaïr swore so colorfully Malik would have made him run pointless errands for the nest two months on end, with no Templars kills. And he'd do it, too; Once, Altair had to go all the way to Damascus to fetch an empty bucket. The bucket was then lit on fire for no apparent reason before his eyes.  
There were those light thingies. The miniature suns. And maybe there were others....?  
He'd have to find some way out.  
But how? He was unarmed; and being good with your fists barely counted against knives.  
The last time he was here...  
He leaned back against the wall as memories flooded his mind, triggered by the last thought. Images of himself in ice cold water, of Jacob's wide eyes as the English Assassin wrapped his arms around Altair's chest and brought him back to the surface. He was remembered scaring someone called Shamrock with a can of Pep-something. And arguing with Edward. Because who didn't argue with Edward?  
He tried to hatch a plan, but each time one began to form, it was snatched away by the torment of memories. Some were sad. Some were odd.  
But a lot were funny.

***  
Edward put a hand on his forehead and blinked.  
"Am I drunk?"  
Silence met his ears.  
"Wait, wait, wait..."  
He screwed his eyes shut and leaned against the wall, taking a deep breath. "This place seems familiar-"  
A wave of images, sights, and movies filled his brain. Pirates of the Carribean? Call of Duty? Subway Surfers?  
He almost choked when he remembered he had a son.  
Not just any son.  
But a Templar.  
Who happened to have an exotic name.  
He grimaced. A Templar. He could have done better.  
But Haytham was good. Not gung-ho kill-all-Assassins- oh, wait he was.  
Well. He was good in a son-ly way. If that was possible.

***  
Connor shifted and rolled over, feeling the peculiar softness of the blanket beneath him.  
Softness....  
He sat up so fast he fell out of the bed.  
"This isn't funny." He said carefully.  
No weapons, no nothing. Stolen from his bed at the Homestead.  
He looked up, at the funny little miniature sun-  
An image flickered across his mind. Altaïr, soaking wet, his body temperature too cold, too shaky. Evie reprimanding Jacob.  
Twins. They were twins. Their last name was Frye.  
Was?  
He shook his head. Is. Is, right?  
And his father and Ezio and Anne and-  
Ziio.

 

***  
Aveline didn't really appreciate this.  
She stood up and examined the room. Nothing to use as a weapon.  
She kicked the wall and crossed her arms angrily. "Whoever did this- come get the beating you deserve!"  
The room was quiet.  
"The Templars did this! Abst... Abstergo!" The memory popped into her head, the name of them. Astergo was another name for Templars...  
In this age.  
She felt a twinge of annoyance.  
No Templar would get the best of her. She'd find a way out, and if there were more Assassins... they'd escape, too.  
There were more Assassins... weren't there? Ezio and Altair and Jacob and Edward and Connor and Arno. And... Shay. She actually felt a strange yearning to see the Irish rogue again. Memories of each person returned as she named them, and she soon began to wonder if she was the only one crammed into a tiny room with nothing by a bed to keep them company.

***  
"Pizza!" Hickey crowed, yanking open the door.  
Desmond immediately slammed it. "Uh-uh. Get back over there, buster. I'm paying for it. You all stay over there. Watch from around the corner or something."  
"Why can't we stay and talk to the guy?" Liam griped.  
"Do I have to go over this again? They know what you look like. You want to go back to Abstergo?"  
The Assassins and Templars practically shot around the corner after that. Desmond waited for one of them to peek around the kitchen corner- Maria was the first to do so- with an eyebrow raised.  
Then he pulled the door open, paying the pizza guy and taking the boxes from him.  
Just as he was about to close the door, the pizza man looked over his shoulder. "Hey, uh, you know you have a whole group of people in your kitchen-"  
"Yeah, in-laws. I'll tough it out."  
"How many in-laws do you have-"  
The door slammed shut.  
Right away, Desmond turned around and gave him most disapproving look at the group of people in the kitchen. They looked just like the old movies, when a bunch of people peered around a corner and each person's head was higher than the other.  
"In-laws?" Malik asked.  
"Oh, God, don't get me started." Desmond groaned, putting the pizza on the table. "That could have been stealthier, guys."  
"It would have been, but I had a Templar right under me." Liam glared at Shay, who threw up his hands.  
"Well, I'm sorry if my Templar-ness if going to be a problem! How about you go f-"  
"-Srop fighting!" Hope cut in, looking pointedly at Shay and Liam. They two rolled their eyes and mumbled their curses to themselves.  
"So, guys, this is pizza." Desmond said, opening the box. "Line up. One piece each."  
"One piece? But there's so many boxes." Hickey whined. Adewelé cuffed his arm.  
"We'll probably be allowed back for more. Don't freak out yet."  
"But-"  
"It's this or not eat, man, take your pick."  
Hickey swore and crept to the back of the line.  
Malik was the first to be served. He grinned at the food in his hand and stuck his tongue out at the others. "This is what I get for being a great Assassin."  
"Or maybe you were just the first in line." Henry said.  
"Or maybe I'm a great Assassin." Malik informed him again.  
"Why's it so... I don't even... this is cheese, right?" Liam asked.  
"Of course it's cheese." Shay explained. "Underneath it is tomato sauce and bread."  
"That's it?" Shao Jun asked. "I thought there would be more."  
"Well, I could try and list off every herb and spice." Shay said slowly.  
"You don't even know what tomato sauce is." Desmond took a piece for himself once everyone was served.  
"Yes, I do!" Shay snapped. "It's the... the red stuff."  
"The red stuff."  
"How else would you describe it?"  
"A mashed-up paste of tomatoes and herbs and various preservatives-"  
"Fine." Shay rolled his eyes and pretended to focus on the wall.  
"So this is Italian?" Leonardo asked hopefully.  
"Well, yeah." Desmond replied.  
"Dominoe's?" Henry inquired, peering at the box. "Any relation to Crawford Starrick, or his companies?"  
"No idea." Desmond answered, "Why?"  
"Not so Jacob and Evie and I can find some way to assassinate him."  
"You are a terrible liar."


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Madness; He may see them sooner than later :)  
> Acsister;Initially because I was trying to keep the group small, but I think I've already failed :P Too many cross connections-Ezio's going to want to see Anne, Henry's going to REALLY want to see Evie (Not so much Jacob.) Edward and Adewalé are going to miss Mary- Everyone's just going to come back at this point.  
> Singing_Cheshire; :D  
> IcedFireFrenzy; I hope William's got some lying around. Especially since Jacob's one and only weakness appears to be glass doors (And Edward taking his hat.)  
> PoisonHw; Yep, everyone's coming back. Mostly because it's fun to write reunions. That, and Star Wars.  
> Colleen+New+Holy; Yeah, Connor is the one to chase Templars around the house with Pepsi :P

Nick came up beside her, watching a few guards bring in Mary, Anne, and Evie.  
"Shay hasn't come back." Melanie said.  
He checked his watch. "It's only been a day and a half."  
She bit her lip. "But what if something happened? What if he got hit by a bike?"  
Nick laughed. "Hit by a bike?"  
"What? It's a possible way to be injured."  
"Yeah, well. We'll give him three days. If he doesn't come back, something's up."  
She rolled her eyes. "Right."

***  
Anne remembered this place. Vaguely, but she did. The memory was triggered just when she looked at the light.  
She remembered that this place, this room, belonged to the Templars. Abstergo or something like that. And then...  
Her memory began to draw blanks. Except for the face of the laughing man she'd had in her head for some time-  
Ezio.  
Ezio Auditore da Firenze.  
She shot to her feet and looked around. Nothing leading into or out of the room. What if there were others? What if she wasn't the only one?  
"Ezio!!!"

***  
Ezio sat up, his brow furrowed. It sounded like someone had called his name.  
He was just about to dismiss it when it came again. Muffled, almost too much to hear it.  
But hear it he did.  
The memory and name and voice lined up in his head and he grinned. "Anne!!!"

***  
Arno was just about to smash the light when he heard the faint sound of someone shouting for Anne.  
He froze, looked around, and was about to swing the boot again when a shout of reply came.  
"... Templars.... these rooms...."  
"I know, Anne..."  
"Ezio?" He asked. He wasn't the only one here, then. But... Surely it wasn't limited to himself, Anne, and Ezio.  
He summoned up the names he remembered best. "Connor? Edward? Jacob?"

***  
"What?" Edward asked. First he thought he'd heard Ezio and Anne, now he heard Arno.  
Was he going crazy?  
Or maybe it was a trick. He hated being tricked. He waited, head tilted to one side, listening for the call to come again.  
"Tell me... not... only one here!"  
Huh.  
"Arno!!!"

***  
Nick rubbed his temples. "Get them to shut up. Now. They're fucking this up."  
Melanie narrowed her eyes at him. "There's nothing we can do without sedating them."  
"Than sedate them, damn it!"

***  
Was that...  
"Father?" Haytham asked. No, too quiet. And probably not recognisable. Edward hadn't exactly been accepting of him before. "Edward?"  
His voice rang loud in his ears, took loud after the serene silence of the room. Why hadn't Shay answered? Surely he was here... right?  
"Haytham?"  
Ziio.  
"I'm right here!" He called. And from farther away, more distant, came Connor's voice.  
"Mother!"

***  
Connor was about to call to his parents again when a guard walked in, holding a... a gun. Or so his memories told him.  
He didn't think. This man was five-foot-two and he was all bones. Connor lunged forward, throwing everything he had at him. The man's eyes widened and he stumbled back, the barrel swinging up at his neck. Connor twisted, and the dart tore his sleeve, nothing more.   
He tackled the guard into the hallway, slamming his head against the opposite wall to knock him out. He wrenched the gun out of his hands and stood up, turning at the sound of footsteps-  
Five more guards, all in the new clothes of this generation.  
Connor raised the weapon at them, cursing in his native tongue. He kept his eyes on the lead one's trigger finger, waiting for the twitch.  
It came, and he jumped to the side, back into his room. He slammed the door and struck his food against it, fumbling with the gun. Those darts came from somewhere in the gun- there. He pulled open a small compartment and grabbed the little handful of darts, turning and throwing them under the bed just as the door opened.  
He surrendered immediately, and lifted his head just a little, looking at the bright darts scattered beneath the bed as they pinned him to the floor.  
"Hold him still..."  
Shit.  
Something pricked his shoulder, and he didn't fight this time, instead, grinning wryly.  
"Huh. Wonder why he's smiling. I hate shots."  
"Yeah. Weird. Must already have started a good dream."

***  
Ezio froze when the guard came in. She was pretty, sure- but nothing beat his Anne.  
He smiled and looked at the bed beside him. "What's this? A pretty one? Ezio doesn't believe he deserves it."  
"Save it, you brat. Hands where I can see them. Now."   
He let the friendliness drain from his face and tilted his head down, just a little, and lowered his voice for better effect. "A pity. You should have taken the offer, ragazza." He smirked for even more effect (By this point he knew none was needed, as this always worked on men way bigger than him.) and tensed his body, preparing to dart down, forward, and to the right. "But nothing beats my Anne."  
She pulled the trigger and he dropped, hearing the dart bury itself in the wall behind him.  
He dove for the legs.  
Then she was on the ground, and he was sprawled awkwardly over her legs. He looked up, seeing the gun a few feet away.  
He scrabbled forward, grasping it with both hands and tugging it away, standing up and aiming it at her as he backed out of the room. Once he was clear of the room, he pulled the door shut and nodded. "Nothing."  
Then, from his left, he herd the sound of several weapons discharging, and felt a dart sink into his arm.  
"Merda."  
Then the ground was uncomfortably close.

***  
Ziio was looking forward to the prospect of seeing Haytham and her son.  
Just as she was about to answer them, the door flew open.  
She moved without thinking, and darted behind the bed.  
"What the....?" A deep voice, male, definately French.  
She moved slowly under the bed, her fists ready. There weren't many places to hide in this room unless you were a ghost; the first place he'd look was under the bed. And the first thing she'd hit was his face.  
She listened for the footsteps, tensed, and let fly as soon as he got on his hands and knees, grumbling to himself.  
Within less than twenty seconds, she'd broken his nose, knocked out more than a few teeth, and scooted out from under the bed to stand over his dazed form. She eased the gun from his grasp, then turned it over in her hands and knocked him unconscious with the end of it.  
Now, to go about-  
"Freeze."  
She whipped around aiming the weapon at the nearest neck and killing the trigger. It hit home, and the guard sank to the ground.  
Before she could get the next target, another guard had sighted her and fired.  
Ziio cursed mentally as the dart embedded itself in her arm and the ground rushed up to meet her.

***  
Mary heard something outside her door.  
And she knew it had to be someone hitting it, because that was a sound she heard often, in taverns, when someone had had too much to drink. It couldn't have been coincidental, either, because she could have sworn she heard Anne shouting. And Ezio. And Arno. And Edward.  
It couldn't have been nothing, but the door was locked.  
After that, she heard a bunch of footsteps, the sounds of people talking.  
"... Hold him still...."  
"Huh. Wonder why he's smiling. I hate shots."  
Mary's mind raced. She wasn't the only on here. Surely the Templars wouldn't dart one of their own. Unless it was Haytham. Or Shay. Memories of those two causing trouble stirred in her head. Maybe they were helping Abstergo, being the bastards they were.

***  
Jacob listened carefully.  
Someone, sometime ago, had said his name.  
And then there was what sounded like patched conversation, different people calling different people and it was too quiet to understand, so he stopped trying to.  
Maybe Evie was here? He remembered she was here last time... shoving people out of his way to get to her, and then the hotel and Altair got his tongue stuck to the balcony railing. He laughed at the memory.  
But then... Evie. Evie would know what to do. She always did. Even moreso than Henry.   
"Evie!!!"

***  
She sat up, knowing that annoyingly familiar voice anywhere.  
"Jacob.... Jacob!!!"  
"Evie! Where are you?!"  
"Uh..." She looked around. Same place as last time. "White room. There's a bed and a door and light-"  
"Evie! They are guards in here and they're- Fuck you, alright? I'm trying to talk to my sister here- hey! Put that down!"  
She rolled her eyes. "Jacob?"  
Silence. Then; "Make sure... doesn't shout again..."  
"Damn it, Jacob!"  
Always getting his ass into trouble.

***  
Aveline heard people talking, but they were too muffled to make out. She couldn't recognize the voices, either.  
But maybe- just maybe- if those were Assassins and Templars...  
And if they were THE Assassins and Templars....  
"Shay?"  
No reply.  
"Connor?"  
Still nothing.  
"Altaïr?"  
There.  
From deep within the walls. "Aveline? Is that you?"  
"It's me!" She called back.  
"We have to escape."  
"I know that. Have you heard the others?"  
"Yes- I can make some out. I know Ezio and Haytham are here."  
"No one else?"  
"No one else."

***  
Altaïr was still hesitant to talk to anyone- Anything could be a Templar trap, of course.- but this was Aveline. He remembered her.  
So maybe if he tested her...  
"Do you remember the Pepsi?" He called.  
"Do I rememberep the what? The Pepsi? How could I forget; Shay was scared shitless."  
"It is you!"  
"Of course it's me. We have to figure something out."  
He nodded, forgetting no one could see him. That was, no one except...  
His eyes fixed on the wall opposite of him.  
No.  
"Aveline! Don't respond to anything I say! They can see and hear us just fine!"  
There was silence; either she was heeding his warning of they had knocked her unconscious, which meant he was next.

***  
"Guys, in here!" Desmond called from the kitchen.  
"Is it time to...." Liam looked around dramatically and lowered his voice. "... execute our plan?"  
Desmond shook his head. "Not yet. But it's not night yet, so we're going to pass the time with Star Wars."  
"Stars don't fight in wars." Shay looked confused. "Wouldn't that mean there's an evil side and a good side?"  
"Stars don't even have sides, dimwit." Liam snapped.  
"Who are you calling a dimwit? You're the genius who lost a fight against a pickle jar-"  
"Hey!" Leonardo cut both of them off. "Desmond's trying to show us something."  
"Thanks, Leo. Anyway, Shay was actually right. There's two sides of the Force, the light and dark. But we'll get into all that soon." Desmond picked up a little box with the words; Star Wars IV: A New Hope. "Ready?"  
"It looks alright." Adewalé said. "Just as long as we have the time to commence our operation."  
"Meh." Malik shrugged. "I'll give it a chance."  
"How about eleven?" Desmond asked.  
"What?"  
"Sorry, bad joke. Someone slap me." Hickey slapped him. "Ow! What the hell? I wasn't serious!"  
"Then don't ask people to slap you if you don't want it to happen."  
"You're a little... you know what, let's just watch the movie."  
While the Assassins and Templars made themselves comfortable- the women took up the couch, leaving Shay with the only other chair.  
"Hey! Get off that! I called dibs!" Hickey snapped.  
"It belongs to the Templar king. Also known as me." Shay growled.  
"What about your Grandmaster?" Liam barked from across the room. "Huh?"  
"Then he gets the chair."  
"How about this?" Henry stood up, grabbed Shay's collar, dragged him out of the chair, sat down in it with a smug grin, then fist-bumped Adewalé.  
"And the point goes to the Assassins!" Hope cheered.  
"Hah! Take that, you overgrown rat!" Hickey laughed. Shay swore and barrelled into him.  
"Hey, someone break them up! I'm trying to get us a good movie and I can't do it if they're hissing and spitting all over the place!" Desmond barked.  
"Ow!" Liam scrambled to his feet when Hickey's foot hit his chin. "Now it's personal!"  
"No, no, no, wait, Liam, use better judgement- aaaaand now there's three." Leonardo rolled his eyes.  
"Well, all you have to do is suggest that it looks like a threesome-" Shao Jun raised her voice so the three could hear over their fight, and within seconds, the Assassin and Templars disentangled themselves from each other, with loud, "Eeeeeeew's" and pulled faces.  
"Annnnnnd- done."  
Desmond turned off the lights and sat next to Leonardo, and watched as the movie began.


End file.
